mca blog

i think i finally understand what DeWitt Clinton was talking about with is post on Microformats and Atom. in fact, i think microformats is the *smart* way to extend atom content. instead of authoring custom extensions for the atom entry element, i think it makes more sense to extend the atom content element. but i *don't* like the idea of using the type attribute of the content element with an arbitrary mime-type.

instead, i think the way to go is to use microformats in the content element. this way, 'dumb' clients will render the content as simple HTML. and 'smart' clients can trundle the microformat for additional information - even provide added functionality based on the CSS class with which the item is marked. i can also see microformats as a way to provide a framework for sending edits to the server (further validating the data in the content element).

i still see some issues in using standard validation services (XSD) for microformats. since the class attribute is the driver for XSD, i'm thinking that validation could be tricky. it might mean transformating the XHTML microformat into clean XML, then doing the XSD. more work, eh?

i'll have to think on that.