Re: [syndication] some republished feeds

[Morbus Iff <morbus@disobey.com>]

>Shouldn't that be an RSS button? If I see a button labeled XML, what format
>am I my expecting?  And does it make sense if the page is already XML (such
>as XHTML)?

Much like a browser can figure out whether it's looking at a text file, a
HTML 3.0 document, a XML document or an XHTML document (with different
behaviour based on DOCTYPE), I'm of the mind that the client program should
be able to tell what the inevitable format of the XML link is.

Sure, you'll have to understandthree different versions of RSS, and
scriptingNews format, but there aren't that many other formats that people
use to syndicate their data. And if they're going to think about placing an
XML button on their site, they should hopefully realize that most of those
links are pointing to RSS/scriptingNews files, and not whatever other
format they're using.

>I won't even get started on the usability problems of using an image as a
>text object... especially one that is too small for the browser to
>adequately display alternate text.

So don't use the button. I've got an XML feed, but have found the XML
button to be damn ugly on the main page of Disobey. I'll just use a happy
little XML link. I think the term "XML" is what's being mentally
recognized, not the "white XML on orange button".

-- 
Morbus Iff

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