Posted by onetitfemme on 09/08/06 01:01

> And then every time a provider changes the layout of its screen--then what?
otf: well, this , as they say, is where the rubber meets the road ;-)
..
I think such scraping APIs should have provisions for these cases, or
don't they? Which of these APIs (in the long list) do that?
..
I also see a way to reset the page context in a more or less automatic
way. If the scraper notices incompatible changes in the page, it simply
opens the page to the fleshy, slick end users (those sinner ones, you
know) and let them deal with it while detecting the actions the user
took ... ;-) and while doing so it transmit the information to a
distributing server for many other users of this scraper/html context
pages to update their "request contexts" after some technical
supervision ... this way people responsible for the server end would
have to crazily and constantly change their pages in a way that it
might even be counter productive to themselves
..
I think this is technically feasible and easily so, but do you see
other issues lurking in there?
..
I could imagine some people wouldn't like this kind of stuff. But I
think, true freedom means they should be free to dump on us all their
crud and we should be free to selectively filter in the type of crud we
deem appropriate
..
It amazes me how many people are very careful about what they eat and
then sit for hours to watch CNN and Hollywood crap, even happily so ;-)
..
otf

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