Re: RSS as a pseudo Web Service

> So generally you would disagree with RSS as a web API?

<sigh> The point isn't to argue interpretations.  You asked about grafting
non-RSS data into an RSS feed.  The suggestion is why bother?  If you've got
data that can't be processed by a 'regular' RSS client why bother burdening
it with wasted bandwidth?

> I fear I may be going off topic, but weight and clients should not stand
> in the way of a person wanting to syndicate more content than a short
> line of descriptive text.

That's not the initial argument you presented.  While, as a premise, there's
validity to the notions of extensibility, there's also the practical
realities of whether the content has the sort of usability one might expect
to be handled in a newsfeed.

Sure, you CAN add anything you like to a feed.  But that doesn't mean you
should.  As an analogy, you CAN haul 20 tons of dirt with a pickup truck,
but you'd probably be better served using a dump truck.  No sense burdening
an ill-equipped vehicle when the task is known to exceed it's abilities.
Likewise, using RSS for hauling extra data smacks of similarly false
economy.

> instead of reinventing the wheel serving it over REST.

Oh my, ready for that flame war?  RSS is perhaps a fine embodiment of REST.

> In regards to RDF parsing, I have noticed odd things with RDF parsing
> with XSL but nothing major. But the most complex RDF I've had to parse
> is FOAF.

Precisely.  If you talk about wanting to add data to an RSS feed formatted
in RSS-1.0 then you're well on your way toward the complexities of what
RDF/XML serializations require.  That is, if you want the data to retain
it's ability to be parsed as graphs.

-Bill Kearney



 
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