From: Francis Hwang <sera@...>
Date: 2005-01-12T13:42:03+09:00
Subject: An open question about the RSS stdlib

Back in November, I built my RSS utility FeedBlender on the RSS  
standard library as it stood in (I believe) 1.8.2 preview 3, and it  
worked fine. Now as I've come back to take a look at it, I suspect that  
a change since then has made FeedBlender break. (I can't verify this  
without getting my hands on Ruby 1.8.2 preview 3; if anybody can tell  
me where to get this I'd be much obliged.)

Anyway, this is sort of my fault since I'm using the RSS library to  
write RSS in a way that Kou had told me isn't supported: You're  
supposed to delegate to RSS objects, not inherit from them. Me, I like  
inheriting, so that's what I did, and I got bit ... there are some  
changes that somewhat mystify me, particularly the fact that it appears  
that RSS 2.0 objects now contain RSS::RDF::Item objects, instread of  
RSS::Rss::Channel::Item objects ...

I want to fix it, but I could use some counsel regarding the long-term  
plans of this library. Seems to me that the parsing is relatively  
stable, but the RSS generation is subject to change, right? The  
old-fashioned, REXML-style generation is obviously changing. The  
tutorial at  
http://www.cozmixng.org/~rwiki/?cmd=view; 
name=RSS+Parser%3A%3ATutorial.en mentions the RSS::Maker, which seems  
like a more Builder-style generation. But that tutorial also  
specifically says Maker's API isn't fixed either.

So if I want FeedBlender to use the standard RSS library, and I don't  
want to have to adapt to a new API every six months, what's my best  
bet?

Thanks,
Francis Hwang
http://fhwang.net/