large categories documents

["Rushforth, Peter" <Peter.Rushforth@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I am wondering about large categories documents.  If a Collection is large, its Members can be categorized many ways, resulting in a large number number of atom:category elements in the app:categories element.

First, I realize this element can be / should be offered as its own resource, but it doesn't prevent the size of the document from being a) too big to generate and b) too big to parse.  I guess this situation could happen with virtually any resource, even a Member/entry.   

What to do? 

I would like to be able to offer it as an application/atom+xml;type=feed, but it seems it is mandated to be application/atomcat+xml.  So, what about putting a <atom:link rel="next"/> into that document and paging the feed.  Would that be "atompub" compatible, or even a good idea?  Moderately extensive programming has to be done to support paging on any given resource, so it is worth asking what the 'right' approach is.  I suppose REST even lets me declare a cut off and truncate the size at some arbitrary point, but that does not seem like a good way to build trust with the customer :-).  Maybe
a combination of the two, where the application/atomcat+xml size is "governed"/limited, and an alternate is offered as a feed? 

Any advice considered!

Thanks

Peter Rushforth