RSS - Creativyst(R) Glossary of developer terms.

Rich Site Summary - (also "Really Simple Syndication") is an application of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). In essence, RSS is a file format that uses XML. It can be created easily by hand or by a web content management system. The RSS standard defines a set of XML tag names, attributes, and a shallow hierarchical structure, which together specify an RSS document.

Netscape originally developed the RSS format for use on My Netscape Network, a customizable start page for Netcenter. My Netscape Network once provided a simple RSS framework for web sites to create channels that can then be added to the customizable start page.

RSS continued to be developed by grass-roots efforts to version 0.9 when it became popular. At that point, not to be outdone, the W3C produced an RDF (Resource Description Framework) flavor which they dubbed RSS. It is important to note though that W3C had no involvement in the earlier grass-roots RSS release efforts.

In keeping with another long standing tradition of the W3C, the new "1.0" version of RSS that they released was incompatible with earlier grass-roots RSS versions and broke programs designed to work with earlier versions.

The grass-roots efforts quickly released a version 2.0 of RSS, which corrected the "break as much existing code as possible" W3C version.

Whew! That's a lot of esplainin! :-) Stay tuned...

... Is "more" always "better"?...

Creativyst also publishes JSMsg, a JavaScript convention to hold RSS-like content that can be displayed using static-only web page markup (basic HTML). Though it is "yet another feed format", it attempts to add real value to the news-feed domain by providing something the other formats don't. It allows webmasters with only static (JavaScript) web-page capabilities to show dynamic feed content on their sites. Creativyst provides free scripts to convert RSS formats (including W3C's RDF based format) into JSMsg files. These can then be shared with, and displayed on, static-only websites.

... And even more...

Enter Atom - or YASSIR (Yet Another Syndication System that's Incompatible with RSS) :-). It seems to be based on its creator's negative personal views of RSS and RSS's creator, Dave Winer. As far as I can tell, its only stated advantage over RSS is that it is not RSS. It would probably not even need to be mentioned here except that Google has decided to use only Atom (no RSS) in its newly acquired blog services. Unfortunately, if you thought that was enough to make it so you'd only have to support Atom, think again. Microsoft still seems to prefer RSS.

The latest news! Dave Winer (the ongoing developer of RSS) has recently proposed a few small changes to the draft Atom specification, which would make it backwards compatible with all previous RSS formats. As you might guess, his proposals have been rejected by those developing ATOM.

All we need now is a doctor wearing an eye-patch and a lurid love affair... Same time next week for more on this exciting saga.

	Rich Site Summary - (also "Really Simple Syndication") is an application of XML (eXtensible Markup Language). In essence, RSS is a file format that uses XML. It can be created easily by hand or by a web content management system. The RSS standard defines a set of XML tag names, attributes, and a shallow hierarchical structure, which together specify an RSS document. Netscape originally developed the RSS format for use on My Netscape Network, a customizable start page for Netcenter. My Netscape Network once provided a simple RSS framework for web sites to create channels that can then be added to the customizable start page. RSS continued to be developed by grass-roots efforts to version 0.9 when it became popular. At that point, not to be outdone, the W3C produced an RDF (Resource Description Framework) flavor which they dubbed RSS. It is important to note though that W3C had no involvement in the earlier grass-roots RSS release efforts. In keeping with another long standing tradition of the W3C, the new "1.0" version of RSS that they released was incompatible with earlier grass-roots RSS versions and broke programs designed to work with earlier versions. The grass-roots efforts quickly released a version 2.0 of RSS, which corrected the "break as much existing code as possible" W3C version. Whew! That's a lot of esplainin! :-) Stay tuned... ... Is "more" always "better"?... Creativyst also publishes JSMsg, a JavaScript convention to hold RSS-like content that can be displayed using static-only web page markup (basic HTML). Though it is "yet another feed format", it attempts to add real value to the news-feed domain by providing something the other formats don't. It allows webmasters with only static (JavaScript) web-page capabilities to show dynamic feed content on their sites. Creativyst provides free scripts to convert RSS formats (including W3C's RDF based format) into JSMsg files. These can then be shared with, and displayed on, static-only websites. ... And even more... Enter Atom - or YASSIR (Yet Another Syndication System that's Incompatible with RSS) :-). It seems to be based on its creator's negative personal views of RSS and RSS's creator, Dave Winer. As far as I can tell, its only stated advantage over RSS is that it is not RSS. It would probably not even need to be mentioned here except that Google has decided to use only Atom (no RSS) in its newly acquired blog services. Unfortunately, if you thought that was enough to make it so you'd only have to support Atom, think again. Microsoft still seems to prefer RSS. The latest news! Dave Winer (the ongoing developer of RSS) has recently proposed a few small changes to the draft Atom specification, which would make it backwards compatible with all previous RSS formats. As you might guess, his proposals have been rejected by those developing ATOM. All we need now is a doctor wearing an eye-patch and a lurid love affair... Same time next week for more on this exciting saga.
	JSMsg VoiceXML XML