Re: new SSFF proposal

[Graham <dtcd@xxxxxxx>]

On 13 Dec 2003, at 1:32 pm, Ken MacLeod wrote:
> Here's a suggestion that allows us to do both, allow inline content
> and separate resources: add a flag to the feed that indicates that the
> content resources are external, accessible via each entry's editURI,
> and that the metadata contained in the entry construct are both
> partial (a tiny subset of the available metadata) and advisory (the
> real metadata is in the entry).

Yes! This is perfect, and exactly what I had in mind re:SSFF. The 
attempts to do something like it within the current Atom constructs 
didn't really work. I hope this gets into the next draft, because it 
will be really useful. I did some very rough calculations on it a while 
ago, and even with extra HTTP overhead I had trouble finding a 
worst-case-scenario where bandwidth savings weren't 50% or more. As 
well as that, you can use it to syndicate longer articles and essays 
without ending up with an enormous feed file. It changes everything. 
Consumers need to be well-behaved though.

(I'd like the subset to consist of either a modified date, or a generic 
opaque eTag-like string that will exist exclusively be used for this 
purpose. I don't think there's any need for much else)

Graham