[uf-discuss] Google Gdata new syndication protocol!

[Christopher St John]

On 4/20/06, Scott Reynen <scott at randomchaos.com> wrote:
> On Apr 20, 2006, at 11:34 AM, Bruce D'Arcus wrote:
>
> > What value do microformats provide in this context? They hardly seem
> > ideal for the sort of straight data transport that seems to be the
> > focus on the gdata stuff.
>
> ... Human-readable data is
> easier for human programmers to work with, even if it's being
> consumed and produced entirely by machines.
>

Call this reason #1.


> When it's not being used
> solely by machines (as RSS and Atom are not), it also cuts down on
> data repetition, which reduces opportunity for error and is just less
> work for everyone involved.
>

Call this reason #2.


I'll add reason #3, my favorite, which is that tools to work with cool new
stuff inevitably lag the the desired adoption of said new stuff,
so the ability to hand-author, then use the hand-authored data inside
existing technology, can be a big win.

The thing is, #3 is sufficient, with #2 as a sweetener. You don't
actually have to buy into #1 to like uf's. In fact, you could disagree
with it strongly. And some people do.

I bring this up not as an excuse to discuss #1 :-), but rather as a
possible partial explanation for the resistance.

-cks

--
Christopher St. John
http://artofsystems.blogspot.com