Re: PaceEntryElementNeedsVersionAttribute

[Danny Ayers <danny666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

steve jenson wrote:

> Atomites,
>
> I've made a very small proposal:
>
> http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/ 
> PaceEntryElementNeedsVersionAttribute
>
> Hopefully the rationale is clear enough; those of us writing Atom API  
> endpoints don't know which version of <entry> we're supposed to be  
> dealing with. It's not currently a problem because everyone conforms 
> to  0.3. As we grow, even if it's just one more version number, this 
> has  the potential to become a problem.

While sympathising with the problem, I really don't think this would be 
a good idea.  I was under the impression that we were aiming for a 
single release version 1.0, rather than a plurality of x.x, one of the 
big problems with RSS. So although early adopters are to be encouraged, 
the spec should keep its eyes on the ball, not fill cyberspace with 
another load of similar-but-incompatible formats. When 0.4 comes along, 
0.3 should be strongly deprecated. When 1.0 comes out, after a 
reasonable amount of time, all the previous versions should be 
considered invalid, i.e. not Atom.

It would follow that expectation should be for service providers only to 
support the most recent version. Sure, this may cause problems in the 
transitions, but that's part of the fun of early adoption.

In any case, until something changes there is no need to flag any 
difference. If and when something does change, a clear statement should 
be made with advice for the benefit of service providers to minimise 
transition costs.

Cheers,
Danny.


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