The key confusion point around how to process thr:count and thr:when is simple: there is no processing model for them. They're strictly advisory. They're nothing more than a hint about how many replies may be found at the link specified, or when the most recent reply may have been placed. If there is a mismatch between those values and reality, reality wins. There is no spoon.
Thomas Broyer wrote: >[snip] > I wouldn't understand what really does mean the following: > <link rel="replies" href="comments.html" type="text/html" thr:count="5" /> > <link rel="replies" href="comments.atom" type="application/atom+xml" > thr:count="10" /> > Without the thr:count, I'd say that those two links are intended for > client-side content negotiation, but given that the two thr:count > values differ… would it mean that there have been 5 new comments since > the text/html representation has been last updated? But what if there > were a thr:when indicating the opposite? > The difference in numbers between each link thr:count does not imply any meaning beyond: "There may be 10 replies found in the atom feed, and there may be 5 replies found in the html page"... such would make sense, for example, if the html page was set up only to show the five most recent entries/replies while the atom feed is set up to show the ten most recent entries/replies. The point being, you cannot compare the two numbers from the two links and expect to derive any meaning from the comparison, particularly given that Atom does not define any particular relationship among link elements of the same type (e.g. two "related" links are not necessarily content-negotiated alternatives of one another). > And Rob Sayre also pointed on his blog a potential problem on how to > use such multiple values: "How do I display that in a client? Do I add > up the numbers? Pick the highest? Do I pick the latest or the earliest > time?". [http://www.franklinmint.fm/blog/archives/000721.html] > I know what your answer is [http://www.snellspace.com/wp/?p=297] but I > also think that these are entry properties, not really link properties > (so I disagree with you on "First, The thr:count and thr:when > properties are specific to the replies link upon which they appear." > [http://www.snellspace.com/wp/?p=296]). > No, the semantic of thr:count is not "How many total replies does this entry have". The semantic of thr:count is "How many replies may be found at this linked location". It's a shortcut. Feed publishers who know how many replies have been made can include it in their replies link so clients don't have to pull the feed, parse it out, and count the number of entries in in-reply-to links just to show a "Comments (5)" link/label in their UI. - James
