Re: Accepting invalid input [was RSS 1.1]

--- In [email protected], "Bill Kearney" <ml_yahoo@i...> wrote:
> From: "ecomputerd" <ecomputerd@y...>
> > It is very unlikely that a popular aggregator would reject 
invalid
> > RSS altogether. If any aggregator is able to read the feed, one 
of
> > the first things the developer will hear is "I can read the feed
> > with YYY reader, why not yours?" This has been my experience.
> 
> Then how about breaking the cycle?  How about calling a halt to the
> foolisness and focusing instead on actually fix the source of the 
problem,
> the feed and it's creation tool?

Because incorrectly reading feeds leads to users viewing your 
aggregator as inferior.

>I'm sick and tired of developers whining
> about the /possibilitly/ of users raising complaint as an excuse.  

I understand that you are sick and tired of whining, but I wasn't 
aware that I was whining. As I believe I mentioned, I speak from 
*experience* not speculation.

>It seems
> far more energies are getting wasted on working around the bad 
data than it
> would ever take to just deal with the sources and solve the problem
> outright.

I don't think this viewpoint takes into account the sphere of the 
developers perceived influence. To "deal with the sources", an 
aggregator developer would require additional communication and 
persuasion, to as-yet-unknown developers, having an unknown outcome, 
while modifying your own (aggregator) code is much more 
straightforward, timely, with a much higher chance of success.

By your line of thinking, I don't understand why the producers of 
the code don't guarantee correct generation of their XML. Why should 
aggregator developers be saddled with the responsibility of ensuring 
the validity of the producer developers' code? Especially when 
rejecting slightly invalid code puts your application in a worse 
light from the end users perspective. We developers are not one 
aggregate (pun not intended).

We can go 'round and 'round with this argument. With my original 
post, I was just pointing out the immediate reality of the 
aggregator developer.

I would be happy to share with you, under an NDA, my XML processing 
code if you will provide me with code that generates a flag letting 
the higher levels of code know if the XML is invalid and in which 
way.

For your reference, my code is in C# for the Compact Framework.

I suspect, but I'm not sure, that you might reject this as a less 
valuable use of your time compared to your alternatives. That is the 
same conclusion, with respect to my time, to which I have come.

With respect,

Greg Smith
Author, FeederReader - The Pocket PC RSS reader and podcatcher
www.FeederReader.com








 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/