I cannot understand why Microsoft seems to try to reinvent the wheel with RSS 2.0. Okay, I am a little bit late with that one, but I just discovered that they talked about an “extension” to RSS 2.0 called “Simple List Extensions Specification” at Gnomedex 2005.

Well, what this SLES is all about? “The Simple List Extensions are designed as extensions to existing feed formats to make exposing ordered lists of items easier and more accessible to users”.

Then I was lost…

Why does Microsoft publish such a specification for RSS 2.0? RSS 1.0, supported by XML Namespaces and RDF, already use such an ordered list called a “rdf:seq” to do exactly the same thing. This capability is provided directly by RDF.

I already wrote about the difference between RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 and I really do not understand why Microsoft develops modules for RSS 2.0 instead of implementing everything using RSS 1.0 and RDF.

I already read somewhere that Microsoft doesn’t have in their plan to develop any RDF parser in their .NET framework. It is probably one of the reasons why they do not use RDF 1.0: because they do not have any tool to implement it and do not have plans to develop one.

Why? Someone could help me with that one?

Right now I think that my greatest whish is to have the Jena framework developed in C#. I think that I can’t rely on Microsoft for that one.

Finally it seems that I am not the only person that have questions related with this move in relation with RSS 1.0.

5 thoughts on “Why Microsoft seems to reinvent the wheel with RSS?

  1. Le gros avantage de cette specification est que tu peux definir de nouveaux filtres et groupes sur un fil RSS. Donc, par default, dans le RSS, tu as seulement les categories . Avec cette specification, tu peux ajouter de nouveaux elements a tes items (ex: rating, prix, etc) et ensuite specifier dans le header du RSS, ce fil peut etre trier par “prix”, ce fil peut etre grouper par “rating” (alors si le fil contient rating 1 etoile, 2 etoiles, 3 etoiles, tu peux filtrer par 1 etoile, 2 etoiles, 3 etoiles).

    Il reste ensuite aux RSS readers a presenter cette information pour que l’utilisateur puisse l’exploiter. (Ex: ajouter les nouveaux tris et groupes du fil RSS courant au UI du RSS Reader dynamiquement)

    Regarde les examples sur http://blogs.msdn.com/rssteam/articles/SimpleListExtensionsExplained.aspx

  2. Salut Jeff!

    Heureux (et surpris) d’avoir un commentaire de ta part. Si je me trompe pas, tu es rendu dans le team de RSS de Microsoft?

    Je viens de relire la spécification et je comprend ce que tu veux faire ressortir. C’est certain que c’est très intéressant pour augmenter les capacités du RSS 2.0.

    Cependant, est-ce que tu aurais une petite explication à me donner en ce qui concerne l’utilisation de RSS 2.0 plustot que RSS 1.0? Et pourquoi Microsoft semble bouder RDF? (aucune parser RDF en .NET et aucun projet dans ce sens par example).

    Merci!

    Salutations,

    Fred

  3. hi, here is the answer for why MS is “reinventing” the wheel with RSS 2.0

    http://www.adambosworth.net/archives/000031.html

  4. Hi Mr. Anand!

    Great, thanks for that blog post. I scanned it quikly, it seems really interesting. I will read it more in deep later when I will have a little bit more time.

    Thanks!

    Salutations,

    Fred

  5. That post is really good… 🙂

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