Re: Re: The Profile and the Feed Validator

Rogers Cadenhead wrote:
> 
> On 10/6/07, Sam Ruby <[email protected] 
> <mailto:rubys%40intertwingly.net>> wrote:
>  > P.S. FWIW, I, too, feel that the guidance in the profile -- at least in
>  > this one specific area -- is woefully incomplete. That's exactly why
>  > I'm raising this issue before the vote takes place.
> 
> The section you're raising concerns about has been in the profile for
> more than a year.

Independent of how long that text has been in place in the drafts, as 
far as I'm concerned the document has yet to be ratified by this group.

> As far as I'm concerned, it's fine in its present form. The
> fundamental piece of advice in that section is true -- "In elements
> that contain plain text, the form of encoding that works in the widest
> number of aggregators is the hexadecimal character reference &#x26; to
> represent "&" and "&#x3C;" to represent "<"."

That's not advice, that's an observation.  It is hard to argue with 
observations.  One can make more observations, but even if you do so, 
the result still does not constitute advice.

The advice that I'm concerned with comes a few paragraphs later, and is 
quoted in the Message and Solution sections of the following page:

   http://feedvalidator.org/docs/warning/CharacterData.html

Note: it it's original context, is is clear that "should" words in this 
sentence are to be interpreted per the RFC 2119 definition of that term.

But if it comes to pass that the profile gets ratified and the feed 
validator issues warnings based on the advice contained in the profile, 
I expect the RSS Advisory Board to either vigorously defend the advice 
presented in the ratified profile, or to actively work to revise the 
profile.

I'll also add that I did not chose this particular section of the draft 
profile at random.  You have repeatedly listed this as one of the three 
questions that cause programmers most difficulty.  The other two 
questions we already largely agree on.

- Sam Ruby


 
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