Danny Ayers wrote:
Huh? OPML is used for *exactly* the purpose specified. Passing lists of feed urls around.I nearly missed this thread, but coincidentally I'd expressed my opinion on OPML this very morning in another mail, below. But first - Re. "Since OPML is already supported by every single aggregator on this particular planet..." - not for the purpose being specified. The amount of work needed to tool up for the new job would be the same if you use OPML or a completely new XML syntax.
And supporting a new format would definitely require more work than hooking into an already supported format. If I have a function call that already parses OPML, I don't need to do anything else.
Sure, and all aggregators understand TCP/IP at some level. We could always encode the data in unused IP header fields. ;-)Plain text is definitely supported by every single aggregator, btw - if we're just talking about a list of URIs, why not use that? What is gained from using OPML? (see rant below)
The more work that is required to implement the functionality (both on the consumer and producer sides), the fewer sites and clients will support it.
Mark -- Mark Fletcher Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com