Charles on… anything that comes along

Dave Winer asks “What is codecasting? and answers “It’s got enclosures, like a podcasting feed, but instead of linking to MP3 files, it links to bits of code.

Seems like a rational next step.”

Yup - so rational that Fraser Speirs came up with the precise same idea back in February 2005 and dubbed it with the rather more accessible name of “appcasting”. I got around to noticing it in May of that year.

It’s something like the system used by the Sparkle framework which gets apps to update themselves when you start them up (which is very neat if you’re not worried they’re going to incorporate a bug.. actually, Sparkle really should incorporate some sort of public key swap to make sure it can’t be hacked - ah, it does: Supports DSA signatures for ultra-secure updates (or MD5 for verified updates)).

Let’s hope Dave’s listening for this and will realise appcasting is a much nicer name. Hey, let’s start a petition!

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• 'Appcasting' - keep your software up to date via RSS enclosures (12 May 2005; score: 97.54%)
• "That wasn't supposed to happen" (22 November 2004; score: 51%)
• When you stop reading news.. nothing happens (26 July 2006; score: 48.44%)