[XML-DEV Mailing List Archive Home] [By Thread] [By Date] [Recent Entries] [Reply To This Message] RE: Postel's law, exceptions
At 9:13 PM -0500 1/20/04, Bob Wyman wrote: > The issue with our feeds is that we don't put <language> tags >in them. These tags are defined as optional in RSS V2.0, but there is >no question that having them improves the utility of a feed >significantly and some people consider their absence to constitute a >"broken feed.". What's the purpose of the language tag? Oh, God, I found it. It's the natural human language of the feed, isn't it? Bleah. It's really just a less useful reinvention of the xml:lang attribute, yet another bit of brain damage by a developer who persists in releasing half-baked specs based on technologies he doesn't understand. Somehow I thought he might have learned something in the last few years. I guess I was wrong. How would you feel about dropping all language elements and replacing them with xml:lang attributes? That would certainly better address your need to tag different items with different languages. (This is one good reason why the xml:lang attribute should have been used in the first place instead of a new, redundant language element.) Furthermore, an unexpected attribute is a lot less likely to trip people up than an unexpected element. And if anybody challenges you, you can justify it by reference to the XML spec. This is a good example of XML's extensibility and non-draconian nature. There is no reason you shouldn't be able to add useful information to feeds in this way. Adding a well-formed attribute that can be ignored by anyone who doesn't care about it is very different from sending malformed data that causes every XML parser on the planet to report a fatal error. -- Elliotte Rusty Harold elharo@m... Effective XML (Addison-Wesley, 2003) http://www.cafeconleche.org/books/effectivexml http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0321150406/ref%3Dnosim/cafeaulaitA
|
PURCHASE STYLUS STUDIO ONLINE TODAY!Purchasing Stylus Studio from our online shop is Easy, Secure and Value Priced! Download The World's Best XML IDE!Accelerate XML development with our award-winning XML IDE - Download a free trial today! Subscribe in XML format
|