Re: more on the simplified feed format

[Ken MacLeod <ken@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Graham Parks <dtcd@xxxxxxx> writes:

> I don't like this at all. You'd need to do a conditional get on
> every single entry every time the feed is reloaded. Leave the eTag
> in, or at mnost switch it for a modified date.
> 
> Prior art in IMAP 4:
> http://asg.web.cmu.edu/cyrus/rfc/draft-ietf-imap-disc-01.html
> (See the part about "descriptors" in section 2)

Additional prior art is in NNTP[1], particularly the XOVER request
which returns "overview" headers so clients can display that
information in the newsgroup pane without downloading the complete set
of articles.

In a syndication context, since items can change over time, I think
including the <modified> (E-tag less so) information is appropriate to
allow the client to indicate an item has changed without making an
additional request to the server to find that out.

  -- Ken

[1] ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2980.txt