[Kget] Updating Metalink spec

[Anthony Bryan]

hi guys,

it's a pleasure using KGet in general, & being able to make use of
metalinks. thank you!

I posted 2 wishlist bugs today, I consider the chunk checksum/download
repair to be something that would be very helpful to most users, so
downloads can be automatically fixed if there are errors.
the one with Nepomuk could be interesting but is probably more
"experimental" at this point.

I also wonder if KGet can mix FTP/HTTP & BitTorrent downloads, like
aria2 & GetRight? or are they completely separate?


anyways, I'm updating the spec. the major changes are using RFC 3339
dates (which I think Manolo said will not affect KGet, I tested it as
well) and a change to the way tags are listed.

the first draft of the new spec is at
http://groups.google.com/group/metalink-discussion/files

if there are things you think we can improve, please tell me.

the short list of changes mentioned in the spec:

0.1 Changes in the Third Edition

This third edition of the Metalink 3.0 Specification mainly contains
clarifications, except for the change to using RFC 3339 for dates &
times (4.2.1.3), changes
to tags (4.3.4), and deprecating unused or underspecified elements
(4.3.8 and 4.3.17), and an explicit example of extending Metalink with
XML namespaces (4.4).

here are my more detailed notes...

new spec!!!
       update metalink logo
       add new implementations by
       add new thanks
       update 1.6 Implementation
       2.1 verification changed from optional to recommended
               multithreaded change from recommended to optional
               recommend large file download support
               recommend cross session resume
       add DTA ubuntu screenshot
       3.3 mirror search, metamirrors, debindex
       4.1.2.2 clarify directory structure
       4.2.1.3 change all time examples to RFC 3339
       4.2.2.4 generators that have access to scan a file they are
creating a metalink for should list the file size in the metalink (if
the metalink is referring to a specific file).
       4.3 don't choke on unknown elements.
       4.3.2 xml:lang for description
       4.3.4 tags change from <tags>foo,bar</tags> to
<tags><tag>foo</tag><tag>bar</tag></tags>
       4.3.8 deprecate relations
       4.3.17 deprecate bittorrent-in-XML element of spec
       4.4 use namespaces, DTA example
       undone: update tags in examples
       undone: UPDATE SCHEMA

-- 
(( Anthony Bryan ... Metalink [ http://www.metalinker.org ]
  )) Easier, More Reliable, Self Healing Downloads