# links (1-links.net)

People say links to mean connections between things. On the web, it means the blue underlined words you click to go somewhere else. It can also mean the pieces of a chain, or the connections between people.

## What a model may hear
- symbolic references (operating systems and file systems): treat the request as being about hard links or symbolic links (symlinks), which are pointers to files
- hypertext references (HTML and web development): generate anchor tags, href attributes, or URL structures
- graph edges (data structures and network theory): model relationships as edges in a graph with nodes and connections
- library linking (compiled software and build systems): assume static or dynamic linking of code libraries

## Where people and models part ways
- Says: "Send me the links"
  Means: Share some web URLs with me
  May be taken as: Generate file system symlinks or symbolic link commands
  Say instead: "Send me some web URLs I can click"
- Says: "Fix the broken links"
  Means: Some website URLs do not work anymore
  May be taken as: Attempt to repair file system symbolic links or debug library linking errors
  Say instead: "Fix the broken URLs on my website"
- Says: "Show me how they link together"
  Means: Explain how these ideas connect
  May be taken as: Draw a graph data structure or write code for linked nodes
  Say instead: "Explain how these ideas connect conceptually"
- Says: "Add links to the document"
  Means: Put in clickable references to web pages
  May be taken as: Insert HTML anchor tags with empty or guessed href values, or create file system links
  Say instead: "Add clickable web URLs to the document"

## Tips
- Say web links or URLs when you mean the internet kind
- Say file shortcuts or symlinks when you mean the operating system kind
- Say connections or relationships when you mean abstract ideas
- Specify HTML links or markdown links if you want a particular format
- Say chain links or golf links if you mean those literal things

## Often confused with
- ln: the Unix command that makes symbolic links, not the plural noun
- link: singular form, same meanings but may trigger different code patterns
- URL: the actual address text, not the clickable element or relationship
- href: the HTML attribute that holds a link destination, not the whole concept
- node: the endpoint in a network, not the connection between endpoints
- edge: the technical term for a connection in graph theory, more abstract than links