Subject: Re: Date Options Analysis: Issued

From: "Arve Bersvendsen" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 13:36:07 +0200

>> A clear wording on what an element really does _mean_ is a tool for
>> application vendors to facilitate reliable interoperability.
> 
> Arve: Perhaps I should be happy with half my questions answered, but
> consider me greedy... I want the whole enchilada.
> 
> For the sake of argument, we can agree that a static date can be neither
> mandated nor effectively validated. So what are the real-world
repercussions
> of using a dynamic date? How will your publishing app and/or aggregator
> break when I change a date in my feed? What unintended consequence will I
> face?

Please note that I was deliberately not answering what "issued" should mean
at this point. I was arguing that we should have a common understanding of
which question we were answering, when filling in DateSurvey.

If you were curious as to why I am -1 on mutable, and +1 on immutable, you
can first look a partial answer here:
<URL:http://imc.org/atom-syntax/mail-archive/msg07672.html>

When something is issued, it is out there, and issued, forever.  If you
change the content of what is out there, it is no longer the same entity: it
is a new entity, and SHOULD carry the metadata saying it is a new entity,
with some specifically named relation to the old one. 

If you are the creator of a non-revisioning CMS, my guess is that the desire
to change the "issued" date, is that you want it to bump back on to the front
page, or back into a feed where it normally would have rolled off. Sorting
this front page, or the feed by 'modified' is then, IMHO, a more suitable
option.

-- 
Arve Bersvendsen