extensive perl hacking vs. changing a microformat (was Re: [uf-discuss] rel-tag for hierarchical and general categories)

[Tantek Ç elik]

On 12/10/05 5:27 AM, "Benjamin Carlyle" <benjamincarlyle at optusnet.com.au>
wrote:

> I think
> this would require extensive perl hacking to fix. Could this problem be
> resolved in the microformat?

Hi Ben,

There is a general rule to follow in software design and data formats which
is very important.

If it is a question of hacking a particular implementation to work, or
changing a data format to work around a particular implementation's
limitations, the answer is, you always hack the implementation, not the data
format.

Data outlives code 10-100 fold.  People's data is what they care about.
Applications come and go and people move their data around.

It is much more important to have a properly design data format for data
integrity, portability, longevity etc. than to morph it just to work with an
ephemeral implementation or two.

Thanks,

Tantek