RSS reader tidbits

I have only one firm policy: when you appear in a screenshot, blog it.

Brent’s new Combined View for NetNewsWire is a sweet-looking two-pane view from a three-pane aggregator: rather like AmphetaOutlines or someone’s skin for Aggie that I can’t find right now, but with typical three-pane control: arrow keys or space to move between items, and a slew of shortcuts to expand and collapse. I can imagine having read items right there, but collapsed, being very handy while reading people who still write as though you are reading their web page, talking about “as I said below, and showed in the second image two posts ago…”.

Brent says the point of the Combined View is to keep you from having to keep looking up for the title, then down to the description, then back up to the title, then back down, which reminds me of a problem I’ve been noticing in SharpReader lately: so many people I read have taken to writing entire essays that I’m quite often having to scroll the description pane, which is a double-pain: I have to move the focus down there to scroll, which requires moving more than just my thumb on the spacebar, and then once I’m scrolling, I have to scroll back up to remind myself who it is and what they titled it. It’d be much nicer to have the section at the top of the description that lists the feed and title have position:fixed so it wouldn’t scroll out of view… oh, yeah, embedding Internet Explorer, not Gecko. Grrr.

Would also be nice, if probably not possible: while I was poking at Thunderbird (mostly muttering in a whiney tone “but I don’t like it like that”) I tried out the newsreader by installing nntp//rss (amazingly easy, for what it does), and (re)discovered how running through a bunch of RSS items with the spacebar should work: space – next item – space – next item – space – long item that needs to scroll – space – scrolls down – space – scrolls to end – space – next item. I assume it would take a fair bit of script to pass the keystrokes and window size and scroll position back and forth, but really, Luke, it’s not in my interest to have you spend time with your family, is it?

9 Comments

Comment by Chelsea #
2003-06-17 16:58:13

this may be off subject, but as I was reading threw this… I saw your little comment button at the bottom of each post. I’ve been trying to get one on my blog but I have no clue how! how do you get that??

Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2003-06-17 17:10:23

That would be FAQ # 7185775, Adding reader comments to your blog.

 
 
Comment by Stan #
2003-06-17 22:50:08

Have you tried Syndirella Phil? (http://home.yole.ru/weblog/archives/000095.html)

Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2003-06-17 23:02:35

Funny you should mention that, since it’s 85% done downloading as we speak: I’m downloading fresh copies of everything for testing purposes on this new computer. But somehow I never warmed to Syndirella: I tried it (several times), but always went back to Radio. Then I tried SharpReader, and it just felt right. I really, really like a clean and clear and uncluttered UI. That’s why every time someone suggests a Back button for SharpReader I start foaming at the mouth and accuse them of sleeping with Jerry Falwell’s mother: when I picture Syndirella, I picture the really cheesy looking button bar. Just installed it, and it’s really not a cheesy looking as I picture it, but since there’s no way that I can see to tell it to open links in my default browser, it doesn’t really matter. Though I do remember some talk about embedding Gecko…

 
 
Comment by Luke Hutteman #
2003-06-20 21:53:50

Your wish is my command…

I had previously looked into having SharpReader behave like you said when the spacebar is pressed, but without much success back then. I just figured it out though so the next release will act like you stated above.

If you’re interested in a pre-release, just send me an email…

 
Comment by Bill Kearney #
2003-07-02 11:05:03

Take a look at FeedDemon. http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/

Comment by Phil Ringnalda #
2003-07-02 15:25:09

Oh, I have, and I’ll look again at the next beta, too, but I just can’t see myself actually buying a non-namespace-aware reader. Especially since what I want from a reader’s UI is that it seems to disappear, not that it’s pretty and present.

 
 
Trackback by dive into mark #
2003-06-22 22:25:58

In brief, angry grass edition

Oh, all kinds of stuff.

 
Trackback by Roland Tanglao's Weblog #
2003-09-15 04:09:07

RSS reader tidbits

(SOURCE:”diveintomark”)- Combined View is sweet but mega slow on my B

 

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