James M Snell wrote:
My challenge with the idea of mustUnderstand in Atom is in trying to
figure out how the heck it would realistically be used for anything
worthwhile. Take blog content for instance, if my blog reader accesses
a feed that contains an entry with a mustUnderstand metadata element
that my reader does not understand, does that mean my reader is not
allowed to show me that content? If so, that's kinda stupid when I can
open the same feed in a browser and view the angle bracket version
without any problem. In SOAP, mustUnderstand makes sense given that the
messages passed around are generally intended for automated consumption
designed to kick of or affect processes in some way. Atom feeds are not
typically going to be used that way.
[I don't so much distinction between Atom and SOAP; I suspect Atom and SOAP have intersecting uses.]
In my experience too many people believe their data item is critical and thus needs to be non-optional for everyone else. Maybe I don't get it, but giving people veto powers over downstream applications strikes me as imbalanced, especially for metadata. I have zero confidence in mU being used sensibly.
cheers Bill
