RE: [syndication] Re: Channel 3475 - Please advise

["Jeff Barr" <jeff@vertexdev.com>]

I am all for something like this, but there are several obstacles:

1. A lot of XML purists object to using the extension to indicate
   the type. Doing so does not bother me in the slightest.

2. Asking people to configure their server to generate a new
   MIME type is difficult. Its hard enough to get sites to generate
   HTML entities instead of "<", ">", and "&".

On Windows/IE, a better solution would be to build a pluggable
protocol handler that could sniff incoming files looking for
RSS, and then decorate them with the proper MIME type. See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/networking/pluggable/overview/overview.as
p
for more info on protocol handlers.

With all that said, my experience to date with Headline Viewer
is that over 95% of the users just want to use the set of news
provider "as shipped". Users seem to expect a tool to do
all of the work. This is why I've spent my time building a
dynamic updating mechanism into the product and why I do the
work of finding and publicizing news sources via my newsfeeds
weblog (http://newsfeeds.manilasites.com).

Jeff;

-----Original Message-----
From: Julian Bond [mailto:julian@netmarketseurope.com]
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 2:07 AM
To: syndication@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [syndication] Re: Channel 3475 - Please advise


In article <OF995CBE0C.B0C4D899-ON802569F2.002E3BC5@agora.co.uk>,
hpyle@agora.co.uk writes
>Did I miss something here?  What's wrong with teaching the browser an RSS
>MIME-type;  then just click the RSS link to feed it into your descktop
>aggregator?

I had exactly this thought in the shower after reading last night's
posts. I'd previously asked about RSS file extensions. This is not very
elegant, but if
- we all used .rss (or .xml.rss)
- Userland, Headline viewer etc accepted an rss file on the command line
- .rss was file associated with your favorite headline viewer
then you could just click on the link and choose "Run from here".
Using a Mime Type and helper application is also an option as described
by Hugh.

BUT,

This doesn't deal with more centralized web aggregators like
My.Netscape.

I find the XML button impossibly Geeky for dumber users. In the current
state of play, a link to the actual XML file rather than an HTML display
of the XML would be more useful. Right click, copy shortcut, paste into
aggregator is what you're most likely to do, but it's still a little
technical


--
Julian Bond mail:julian@netmarketseurope.com
workurl:http://www.netmarketseurope.com
weblog:http://roguemoon.manilasites.com
ICQ:33679668 Tel:+44 (0)20 7420 4363
tag: So many words, so little time