On 6/19/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Boris Mann</b> <<a href="mailto:boris@bryght.com">boris@bryght.com</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br><br><div><span class="q"><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/19/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Larry Garfield</b> <<a href="mailto:larry@garfieldtech.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
larry@garfieldtech.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>Disclaimer: I am not an RSS guru, just a pedant. :-)<br><br>RSS is XML. The XML spec explicitly says that invalid files should be discarded, not guessed at the way HTML is. Trying to make sense of a broken RSS feed is explicitly contrary to the spec. So, er, why are we spending so much time trying to sanitize? If it doesn't parse correctly, report an error "this site's RSS feed is f*ed up, tell 'em to fix it". Am I missing something here?
</blockquote></span><div><br>And this is the point where I dive back in....<br><br>Many many many people have argued this.<br><br>Fact: many non proper XML RSS feeds exist in the wild.<br>Fact: if Drupal doesn't parse it, when other applications do, Drupal looks "broken"
<br>Fact: regular people like stuff that "just works" with any RSS feed out there, and will pick that over XML pedantry every day. <br></div><br></div>A checkbox for "discard invalid XML" makes perfect sense....for *some feeds* and *some use cases*
</blockquote></div><br>I strongly agree with Boris.<br><br>Again, it goes to the point of how big a problem is it and can you afford to ignore it?<br><br>If a web site sends bad HTML. Should browsers be so uptight as to popup messages
<br>for each error that is in the HTML? Or should it try to make the best of what is passed<br>on silently? Guess what browsers do today?<br><br>The same goes for MS IE and how non-standards compliant it is. Do we ignore it? No,
<br>because of its market share, as painful as it is.<br><br>So, aggregators should do the same: try to make the best out of the data, even if it<br>has some bad elements.<br>-- <br><a href="http://2bits.com">2bits.com</a>
<br><a href="http://2bits.com">http://2bits.com</a><br>Drupal development, customization and consulting.