Re: Shimbun Basics

["clemens fischer" <ino-qc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

* NAKAJIMA Mikio:

> Major difference between RSS and shimbun is that RSS requires RSS
> feeder and Shimbun works without it.  The latter only requires web
> servers that feed certain contents (there are numerous number of web
> servers in the world while there are not so many RSS feeders, at
> least in Japan), although it needs a HTML processor specifically
> made for each web page in order to get a subject, date, author,
> content, etc.

look at it this way:  RSS is one of the special HTML processors to get
details such as subject, date, author, content etc.

so my proposal is to integrate RSS as one of its sub-processors and
make shimbun the more general "backend".

the _alternative_ would be (and i think i prefer this option), to
isolate the sub-processors already defined for shimbun and make them
regular gnus-backends, such as nnasahi, nnyomjuri etc.

this modularization should benefit the project, and i don't think i
have to talk about the benefits.

also, i think emacs-w3m grows too big, and should concentrate on
providing HTML browsing and HTML searching.  it is complicated enough
as it is now (without shimbun and the other special parts).

the big problem i see here is communication between gnus and
emacs-w3m-shimbun developers.  the mere fact that shimbun and the
other more special emacs-w3m sub-modules could become so big and
involved without any communication with the RSS developer(s) makes the
gap between english and japanese speaking developers stand out, and
this is not good.  before even starting projects one should try to
find out if similar development has happened somewhere else in the
world.

> And RSS's format is defined somehow, and Shimbun doesn't have its
> fixed way to process HTML pages.

ok, this is a big advantage for RSS: its developer knew in advance
what to do.  on the other hand, shimbun developers have invested much
work that is valuable if integrated into a gnus, and i'm sure much of
the work already done can be used in other gnus backends.

of course i recognize the added workload of decomposing emacs-w3m-
shimbun and propably parts of emacs-w3m changed in the process, but
the parts will be smaller and easier to maintain _if the interfaces
are designed properly_!

> RSS and Shimbun are similar to each other for a user who wants to
> read certain web contents, but their internal works and their
> requirements are very different.  So I think shimbun co-work with
> RSS is very difficult.

since RSS and shimbun serve similar purpose, this fact only proves bad
cordination of the interface design.  i am sorry, but this is my
opinion at this moment.  i also wish shimbuns decomposition and
modification into gnus backends will give gnus users more interfaces
to regular newspaper and smilar feeds.

  clemens