Hey Aristotle,
Thanks for the reply!
On 3/9/06, A. Pagaltzis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
No, one of them (NetNewsWire) is a desktop application. Like all
desktop aggregators, it throws away any styling information
associated with the feed via XML means. Many of them will even
filter away (some of) the styling information transmitted in the
body of an entry using HTML's provisions, for security reasons.
Ahhh... I should have done my homework better. Thats my bad... thanks for clarifying.
This is a question of semantics: is IE7 a browser, or is it a
combined browser and aggregator? If you see it as the latter (I
do), it follows that it has the same freedoms as every other
desktop aggregator: that is, to ignore the styling information
associated with feeds at the feed level.
I agree. My orginal concern was that IE7 simply not break existing data feeds that are rendered with CSS/XSLT via PI's. One of the options that seemed reasonable was to allow the user the ability to switch between both the IE view and the PI directives view. While the solution they have chosen is to instead allow the user to turn the rendering behavior on or off, that still fits into the definition of user choice. In reality, I was confusing what I agreesively stand for (users choice) with something that was really directed at not breaking applications, but was instead packaged as publisher choice.
I recognize now this was a mistake. And via Sean's reply, I no longer have any concerns. The user will be given the choice, and thats all that matters. Again, my apologies for mixing to very separate view points... didnt really think this one through to the point of realizing my mistake.
James Yenne seems to be advocating a third option: that the
behaviour should differ depending on whether the feed in question
in being viewed before or after subscribing. To me, that feels
like combining the worst of both worlds. Interface inconsistency
that depends on a remote part of the application state seems like
really bad design from the user perspective, and throws away the
opportunities opened up by combining browser and aggregator in a
single interface.
I didnt not realize this. Okay, I can see your point. Based on my own user experience with IE7 it seems to me that the moment that the orange icon is clicked is the moment I should expect a consistent UI in regards to feed viewing and subscription. *IF* there existed a scenario in which an XML feed should be rendered based on publisher specification, it would be if and when that feed was accessed by ckicking a link internal to a document, or accessing the feed directly via the address bar. However, it seems I am not the first to point this out, and in fact, I'm not certain that this really should be the case. If the user can turn the behavior off, and expect a consistent experience, now matter how they access the feed, this is a good thing. The same is true when the behavior is on -- consistency. It would seem to me that your derived conclusion through all of this is, in fact, spot on. As such, I retract all of my concerns, as they are no longer needed nor valid.
Thanks to both you and Sean for helping me work through this. It seems to me that the questions raised were valid when a full context was unknown and/or not completely understood. With this in mind, it seems there are now some resources to gather together that can be pointed at to help answer what are bound to be more questions in this specific area for others as well.
Thanks again!
Regards,
--
Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/ >
--
<M:D/>
M. David Peterson
http://www.xsltblog.com/
