RSS Reader... anyone interested?

I've been a programmer for several years, with a strong knowledge of C/C++ and some familiarization with Win32.

I've been frustrated to find lately that there are no RSS Readers for my H/PC. This makes checking news on the road a little difficult as I am required to load graphics and other unnecessary elements from my favorite news sites - quite the daunting task on the integrated 33.6kbps modem - an RSS reader to download just the news text would be far more suitable.

Basic Outline:
*Load list of feeds to check on startup

*Modify feed list
**Save modifications for next startup

*Download feeds

*Amalgamate and translate into an HTML file for PIE

So, anyone interested? If enough interest is garnered, I will get the project underway and post regular progress updates.

Jorkapp,

As always it's nice to have another H/PC developer on board, and willing to program. Welcome to the community and this site.

There are a couple of other people also exploring the possibility of writing a RSS aggregator, it might be good if you could get in touch with them and clash heads, though solo efforts are as equally valued.

I'm sure I speak for more then just myself when I say: a RSS reader would be fantastic!

Sure, it would make it easier for viewing threads on our handhelds, PIE is relatively irritating, currently.

I'd love to see RSS, especially on WinCE 2.0.

I've been planning on writing one, but honestly I haven't coded any VB/C++ outside of some VBscript in ASP and a ton of ANSI C code from college. If you have the knowledge and the time, I'd love to see it happen. Have HPC/Pro support, and I'll test it for you on my MP800.

Your biggest issue will be checking if there is a connection by which to download a cache of the RSS feeds, and actually grabbing the files. Just drop the data into a treeview control and it'd be a very cool application. When I was messing with my idea I thought of it as a 2 pane system with the tree on the left, and the display on the right. Also, the different versions of the HTML control make it a pain for some device support. Also, the XML controller is different, which was my main concern as HPC/Pro doesn't even have one (as far as I know!).

If you get anywhere, or need some help (coming up with an algorithm, or resources or whatnot) I'm here!

Edited by abyssknight 2006-02-20 5:34 PM

Excellent. Glad to see a good response. I'll get to work immediately.

First update: The UI layout is in place. Next phases are UI operability and HTTP functions.

C:Amie: Right now, this is a solo effort, but if need be, I would love to "clash heads" with some of the others out there.

abyssknight: I'm working around the lack of XML controllers. My target audience for this is H/PC Pro users, so I'll be taking the Download XML->Amalgamate->Translate to HTML path to work around the lack of controller. I feel this would be the best approach, as it makes forward and reverse porting easier, and saves me the work of writing an XML parser (I may be a programmer, but I have every right to be lazy ). Once I get things functional, I'll give you a shout for beta testing.

theres soemthing in qmail3..

anyway welcome! hope you can/will write it

Just a forewarning about RSS... RSS 2.0 and RSS 1.92 are the big standards, but a lot of sites are using a hybrid standard which adds in their own xml nodes. Just keep that in mind when writing it. You could probably use a regular expression to parse the title and description nodes which would be enough. Just be aware they usually throw HTML in there too.

I'm glad you're taking the wheel on this, as I just don't have the time at the moment to really dedicate myself to the task. I'm excited and can't wait to read feeds! Even the PocketPC readers I've used are not that great, and they have the advantage of current support.

C:Amie, just a thought on the complete far end of the spectrum... Is there a way we could start a HPC developer network? It might be advantagous if we could band those with the skills and the time together to work on H:Bomb or other HPC projects.

Ok I got those RSS version numbers wrong!

Here's a link to the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(protocol)

Edited by abyssknight 2006-02-20 8:55 PM

Would be very interested in seeing such a beast and would appreciate the effort.

Chuck

I am interested... If possible, one for CE 2 SH3...

Good to see such a positive response.

Progress update #2: UI Operability is making slow but steady progress as I learn the intricite nature of Win32 - being given only a basic familiarity with some of my coding projects in years past.

In individual response:

cmonex: Interesting. I had QMail3 on my H/PC, but I never got too far since it would only work using the integrated modem and not over a proxy server, but I never noticed the RSS reader. As well, QM3 is a titan and wreaks havoc on limited storage space for those of us confined to internal memory at the moment. My goal is something light-weight and purpose built, and that will operate through proxy servers.

abyssknight: Thanks for the multi-protocol warning. I've worked with DOM objects in Javascript in the years gone by, so I should be able to quickly get ahold of things. As for the "included HTML", since I'm not parsing the XML, but rather translating it to HTML, "included HTML" shouldn't be an issue.

tenjeangosi: Right now my focus is H/PC Pro, and my testing abilities at the moment are limited to MIPS and x86em. I am doing my best however to ensure that portability to CE2, and to ARM and SuperH platforms will be as painless as possible.

Jorkapp, what UI are you building for this? If you need a hand, just shout.

HPC Pro is definitely the right SDK to target, as it'll give you the biggest audience.

chiark: A Win32 UI using Window Controls - no MFC, etc, just pure Win32.

That's what I code... If you're not used to Win32 programming - sorry if you are - then there's a neat tip I've picked up to avoid huge switch statements in the window process.

Something like this...