Nick, > -----Original Message----- > Which is no doubt very nice - but can someone tell those of us > that might be casually reading this list what RSS and Atom actually > are?
Sure. RSS [1] and Atom [2] are XML specifications for "content syndication". The easiest way to explain what "content syndication" means might be by example: Let's say every day you like to read the headlines on BBC news and CNN. So, every day you load up their websites. Instead, if the BBC and CNN offer RSS/Atom feeds, you can tell your RSS/Atom-capable reader [3] (also known as an aggregator) the location of the feeds and you can read both of them from one convenient location. To relate this to Perl, search.cpan.org provides an RSS feed for the most recent CPAN distributions [4]. Add that feed to your aggregator and you can instantly be notified when new distributions are released. Also, use.perl.org has RSS feeds for all of their journals -- meaning I can easily keep track of Andy's ramblings [5]. :) O'Reilly has a book on the subject. [6] Well, that's the basics anyway! -Brian [1] http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss [2] http://www.atomenabled.org/ [3] http://www.atomenabled.org/everyone/atomenabled/index.php?c=5 [4] http://search.cpan.org/rss/search.rss [5] http://use.perl.org/~petdance/journal/rss [6] http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/consynrss/ http://www.gordano.com - Messaging for educators.
