/** Taken from Core Web Programming from 
 *  Prentice Hall and Sun Microsystems Press,
 *  http://www.corewebprogramming.com/.
 *  © 2001 Marty Hall and Larry Brown;
 *  may be freely used or adapted.  
 */
 
 // Further simplified getURL method. 
 
 public URL getURL() {
    if (url != null) {
      return(url);
    }
    System.out.print("Enter URL: ");
    System.out.flush();
    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(
                          new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    String urlString = null;
    try {
      urlString = in.readLine();
      url = new URL(urlString);
    } catch(MalformedURLException mue) {
      System.out.println(urlString + " is not valid.\n" +
                        		 "Try again.");
      getURL();
    } catch(IOException ioe) {
      System.out.println("IOError when reading input: " + ioe);
      ioe.printStackTrace(); // Can skip return(null) now
    } finally {
      return(url);
    }
  }