Sporkmonger

So, I’m curious, how many parsers/feed readers show an incorrect date for this feed or just blow up for that matter?

So far in my testing, NetNewsWire has been the only parser that correctly displays the date given in the feed. FeedTools can’t parse the date and reverts to the current date and time instead. So does Google Reader and Bloglines, as well as most of the online feed readers I tried it out with.

The Feed Validator does helpfully warn me of an “implausible date”, but the feed is perfectly valid Atom 1.0, so far as I can tell.

I’m honestly not too worried about the issue of parsers not being able to handle the concept of 2038 when it roles around. By 2038, the concept of feeds will likely seem utterly obsolete. But I can’t help but wonder if some parsers will end up tossing an exception on this feed. I couldn’t find anything in Mark Pilgrim ’s UFP test suite for dates being out of range. The largest date among the tests seems to be some time in 2004.