intertwingly

Daniel Berlinger: Sam's certainly consistent. Why the envelope Sam? No need to reiterate what it's used for in SOAP, but what's the benefit in this context? Why not just post the RSS and namespace the extensions? (as you suggest...) Does it improve interop when turning one standard into another? (just asking, no agenda)

Thank you. I've tried to be consistent.  Advocating a single, uniform, consise, and extensible data format as opposed to unique formats for each intended purporse.  Alternatives which generally are simultaneously more verbose and yet somehow manage to contain less information.  Alternatives which are considerably less extensible, if they are extensible at all.

Now in addition to the various uses I had collected before, I can add BlogPing.  I say collected, as I didn't invent most of these.  I have simply been collecting them in a manufactured serendipity sort of way.

Now to answer your question: the reason for headers is for orthogonal extensibility.  What does that mean?  Look at RESTLog.  Whatever I place inside the item is saved permanenty.  Suppose I simply want to pass an option to the RESTLog application itself?  Similar question for validation, for archiving, for pinging, etc.

No, I won't give you a specific example today.  I am merely recording observations, and encouraging people to leave room for potential future needs.  When they arise, I plan to still be here.  I am a very patient evangelist.