Re: well-formedness error

[Danny Ayers <danny666@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Anne van Kesteren wrote:

> Should clients parse or ignore invalid feeds? Is it one of the goals 
> of Atom to specify this or is it left open for implementors? Does Atom 
> make  any notes, normative or informative, about it?
>
> I think the specification should say something about it, if not 
> already done, to ensure forward compatible parsing.


This topic has already been discussed at length. Initially several 
aggregator vendors were prepared to support a policy of XML-only, but 
the opportunity for encouraging well-formed data in this way was 
undermined by those who believe the end user is better served by tools 
that support invalid feeds. This is however a noble undertaking - once 
we have universal parsers, one of the major goals of Artificial 
Intelligence will have been achieved.

Currently there is considerable support for informing the user that a 
feed is invalid and also (optionally) providing a notification port 
server-side through which reports can be made. I personally think that 
the specification of what constitutes an 'Atom-conformant' tool should 
be on the job list, to encourage good practices.

Cheers,
Danny.

--

Raw
http://dannyayers.com