WordPress 2.1 is code-named “Ella” after Ella Fitzgerald. Well, if that’s so, then Ella is singing the blues.
In the next couple of weeks, I planned on upgrading all of my weblogs to the new version. I’m also moving the few people who had tried out Wordform to WordPress 2.1, so they’re using a supported weblogging tool. However, I read in Mark Pilgrim’s weblog this morning that WordPress 2.1 still does not have a valid Atom 1.0 feed, I thought to myself, “No, that can’t possibly be. After all the work people did to create a patch? After all the promises of a valid Atom feed since version 1.6?”
It’s true, though. I downloaded the installation this AM and there it is: Atom 0.3.
There’s nothing like syndication to bring out the schoolyard in supposedly reasonable adults. I don’t think even the “vi versus emacs” wars compare.
I’m still porting all the weblogs to WordPress 2.1. I’ll be installing the Atom 0.3 feed on the ported Wordform weblogs, because I don’t want to put non-standard files on other people’s sites. However, I’m using my own edited Atom 1.0 feed for my sites. It works, but I do tire of having to have a backup of this so it’s not overwritten with every bug and design release.
Do I appreciate having this software? You bet. Do I appreciate the team working on it? You bet. But continuing to release an invalid feed syntax sounds a sour note, and the Ella I know and adore would never sing off-key.
update
Joe Gregorio on the phantom Atom 1.0 release.