RSS and Atom

The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be
accessible from the publisher's web site as long as the book is in print.
About the author
D
AVE
J
OHNSON
works at Sun Microsystems, where he develops, supports, and
promotes blog technologies. Prior to joining Sun, Dave worked for a variety of
software companies, including
SAS
Institute,
HAHT
Commerce, and Rogue
Wave Software. In 2002, unable to satisfy his urge to create cool software at work,
Dave worked nights and weekends to create the open source Roller blog server,
which is now used by thousands of bloggers at Sun,
IBM
, and
JR
oller.com.
About the title
By combining introductions, overviews, and how-to examples, the In Action
books are designed to help learning and remembering. According to research in
cognitive science, the things people remember are things they discover during
self-motivated exploration.
Although no one at Manning is a cognitive scientist, we are convinced that for
learning to become permanent it must pass through stages of exploration, play,
and, interestingly, retelling of what is being learned. People understand and
remember new things, which is to say they master them, only after actively
exploring them. Humans learn in action. An essential part of an In Action guide
is that it is example-driven. It encourages the reader to try things out, to play
with new code, and explore new ideas.
There is another, more mundane, reason for the title of this book: our readers
are busy. They use books to do a job or to solve a problem. They need books that
allow them to jump in and jump out easily and learn just what they want just
when they want it. They need books that aid them "in action." The books in this
series are designed for such readers.
About the cover illustration
The figure on the cover of
RSS
and Atom in Action is a "Dervish of Syria." Muslim