Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom: Developer's Guide to Syndicating News and Blogs 

reviewed by Robert Pritchett 

Author: Ben Hammersley 

http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/catalog/view/au/909

http://www.benhammersley.com

O'Reilly 

http://www.oreilly.com

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/deveoprssatom/index.html

Released: April 2005 

Pages:  

$40 USD, $56 CND,  28.50 GBP,  36   Euro 

ISBN:  0596008813 

Requirements: Some knowledge of HTML, XML, some Perl 

and a desire to be a professional programmer. 

Strengths: Practical, not theoretical approach to RSSing and 

Atomizing newsfeeds and Blogs. 

Weaknesses: None found. 

Developing Feeds with RSS and Atom: Developer's Guide to Syndicating News and Blogs by 

Ben Hammersley  does an excellent job discussing the ins and outs of RSS and Atom coding for 

Blogs, Newsfeeds and XMLing RSS. 

If you do Blogs and want to get syndicated, this book will get you there. You will also discover 

the short history behind why there are so many different RSS versions, some of their strengths 

and weaknesses and why Atom is going strong. 

The book does no assume you know anything, but does assume you know a little about Perl, so if 

you are an  advanced  RSSer, this book may not be of interest except for the chapter on XMLing 

RSS. 

If you want to learn about RSS modeling and scripting, than you have come to the right place. 

That's right, 3 formats. Two RSS (1.0 and  2.0 and no, one is not a revision of the other) and one 

Atom. Atom is still maturing, but we use it in our Blog at 

macCompanion.com

.   

  MPN, LLC 2005 macCompanion 

Page 26 

August 2005, Volume 3 Issue 8