[AppStream] Extensibility in AppStream

[Richard Hughes]

On 3 August 2016 at 21:21, Matthias Klumpp <matthias at tenstral.net> wrote:
> That would be better than having an inofficial tag, and also makes it
> clear that these tags are not specified.

Well, at least with <metadata> you have a clear "block" of nonstandard
stuff, and also it's very clear it's a key=value store. Maybe the
biggest problem was the name <metadata> -- perhaps
<vendor_specific_data> or <non_standard_dictionary> would make it
clearer what it's for.

> tags (hughsie is only doing it because he uses the XML as caching
> format, which IMHO is the wrong approach).

Well, I use it for that, but I also use it (and used it) for a whole
lot more. I've experimented with new tags before I've asked to
standardise them, for instance with the priority and various font
attributes. I think having a KV store is tremendously useful in lots
of standards being used in the real world e.g.
https://github.com/hughsie/fwupd/blob/master/docs/dfu-metadata-store.md

Richard.