Atom versus RSS in a nutshell
Here follows a email conversation between Michael C Harris and myself (from July 2008) on the merits of Atom versus RSS.
Normally I wouldn’t breach confidentiality without Michael’s express permission but the only defence Ciaran G could summon up was this post from Dave Winer (which wasn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of Atom).
Andy C: What’s the deal with the Atom vs RSS war with you ?
- Is it functional ?
- Is it ‘freedom’ ?
- Is is licensing ?
- Is it because you invented Atom ?
What is it ? Please put me out of my agony.
Michael: C Harris: There are a couple of reasons. First, there are at least 3 quite different versions of RSS, and one accepted version of Atom. There are gaps and inconsistencies in the RSS specs (hence other RSS specs were created to fill the wholes) but the Atom spec is quite complete. The Atom spec is very well written. These things make it easier for developers, which in turn make it more likely to just work.
Also, the Atom Syndication Format (which is what people mean when they say Atom) has a partner specification called the Atom Publishing Protocol that allows for remote publication. For example, Habari is AtomPub enabled, so if we create an OMB plugin, you’ll be able to publish to it just by using an AtomPub client (which you can also use to publish your photos to Flickr, or post on your blog).
Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of clients around yet, but that’s one of my projects when I finish the PhD.
I think AtomPub (also known as APP or, incorrectly as the Atom API) is great and will be really important in the future. RSS has no comparable mechanism.
In a nutshell :)
