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Re: feed: URI assumed by Safari


On 28 Jan '06, at 2:36 AM, Danny Ayers wrote:

Bogus might not be the right word - but it's not far off. At best it's

a workaround for RSS 2.0's lack of a standard mime type.


Isn't "application/rss+xml" a de-facto standard? But in any case, a MIME type wouldn't suffice. A feed is more than a static document like a JPG: its value comes from the fact that it changes over time in a meaningful way, and the value of a news-reader is that it tracks those changes.

Assuming a standard MIME type, and assuming news reader apps that register that type with the OS and the web browser, the user experience would be
1. I click on that silly orange "XML" button
2. This "index.rss" turd-file appears in my downloads folder
3. A news-reader launches and displays the articles in the feed.
4. The feed never updates in the news-reader because it has no idea where to refresh it from.

Step 2 is annoying, but 4 is a deal-breaker. Barring some kind of nonstandard out-of-band communication (like the browser adding the URL of the feed to the file's metadata) the news reader cannot subscribe to the feed, because subscribing requires knowing the feed's URL, not just its contents.*

My point is that a news feed is not just a document. It is a dynamic resource that requires a protocol to make use of it, much like a POP account. Therefore I think that identifying it via a URL scheme is appropriate.

Now, i think some of the confusion here stems from the fact that, for better or worse, the current protocol for subscribing to a news feed involves nothing more than repeatedly fetching it as a normal HTTP resource. But that doesn't mean a feed should be treated as any other HTTP resource.

*[Atom does work around this with <link rel="self">, but this doesn't change my point that the location of a dynamic resource is more important than its contents.]

___________________________________________
Jens Alfke — Social Software Introvert — Apple Computer
Getting bored is not allowed


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References: 
 >feed: URI assumed by Safari (From: Lucas Gonze <email@hidden>)
 >Re: feed: URI assumed by Safari (From: Jens Alfke <email@hidden>)
 >Re: feed: URI assumed by Safari (From: Danny Ayers <email@hidden>)



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