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gadgetguru · 03-13-2005, 01:06 PM

Actually I do use them with Sunrise, sure the followed links are graphics heavy but somewhere in there is the 'meat' of the article, some contain only the first page of a multi-page article but most of the time, the 'meat' of the article is on that first page.

As for broken XML, the way Sunrise overlook these errors is quite good, and most popular XML sites render well, sure, some might need rewritting for 'nested tables' or other stuffs, but most sites render well irregardless. Note that the XML is mostly only the first page since the linked article is pure HTML, that's where most formatting hell is... As for the .sdl, jxl files, as far as I know, they contain mostly the link location and parsing parameters like link depth which you would need anyway if you want to download the RSS feed, they are not really specifically recoded unless you want to block specific portions of the site.

As for adhering to standards, do you really believe that their authors will change them just for say a few PDA users? As long as it works with the major RSS readers, they don't care...just as most HTML coders make their site work well only for IE and not even the second-running Firefox.

Size of XML with 1 level links are not that large for most. Unless you linked very deep, the sites for most are under 1 MB (compressed), and with garhgatuan card sizes going for so little, most people just want the content offline, especially those that do not have 'unlimited' wireless access as per kb charges over WAP or 2.5G phone networks can be quite expensive.

More on file sizes, you could shrink these further, if you forgo graphics or block specific links. That entails additional work, but most software like Lauren's excellent Sunrise, provide a good GUI that even non-techie like me could use. They are mostly one time affair (for each site) anyway.

Some sites do not provide mobile content or blocked mobile content unless you are affiliated with them or have paid for the said content, that's where most RSS feeds come in. I do hope that major sites like CNN or NYT (you are not connected with them, hacker, are you?) do not realize this lest they block it once again as they has done so for mobile content in the past.

And finally, RSS was written with desktop in mind. RSS is to allow easy perusal of headlines to help alleviate the content overload from multiple news sources (debatable since most websites get their content from just a handful of news organizations).

The way we power-PDA users linked to them and download conytent is not what the content-provider wanted. In a way, we are not adhering to the spirit of RSS itself, but as long as we don't break any laws, we, the end-users don't care.

03-13-2005, 01:06 PM	#5
gadgetguru Addict Posts: 214 Karma: 6370 Join Date: May 2003 Location: Asia Device: Tungsten T5	Actually I do use them with Sunrise, sure the followed links are graphics heavy but somewhere in there is the 'meat' of the article, some contain only the first page of a multi-page article but most of the time, the 'meat' of the article is on that first page. As for broken XML, the way Sunrise overlook these errors is quite good, and most popular XML sites render well, sure, some might need rewritting for 'nested tables' or other stuffs, but most sites render well irregardless. Note that the XML is mostly only the first page since the linked article is pure HTML, that's where most formatting hell is... As for the .sdl, jxl files, as far as I know, they contain mostly the link location and parsing parameters like link depth which you would need anyway if you want to download the RSS feed, they are not really specifically recoded unless you want to block specific portions of the site. As for adhering to standards, do you really believe that their authors will change them just for say a few PDA users? As long as it works with the major RSS readers, they don't care...just as most HTML coders make their site work well only for IE and not even the second-running Firefox. Size of XML with 1 level links are not that large for most. Unless you linked very deep, the sites for most are under 1 MB (compressed), and with garhgatuan card sizes going for so little, most people just want the content offline, especially those that do not have 'unlimited' wireless access as per kb charges over WAP or 2.5G phone networks can be quite expensive. More on file sizes, you could shrink these further, if you forgo graphics or block specific links. That entails additional work, but most software like Lauren's excellent Sunrise, provide a good GUI that even non-techie like me could use. They are mostly one time affair (for each site) anyway. Some sites do not provide mobile content or blocked mobile content unless you are affiliated with them or have paid for the said content, that's where most RSS feeds come in. I do hope that major sites like CNN or NYT (you are not connected with them, hacker, are you?) do not realize this lest they block it once again as they has done so for mobile content in the past. And finally, RSS was written with desktop in mind. RSS is to allow easy perusal of headlines to help alleviate the content overload from multiple news sources (debatable since most websites get their content from just a handful of news organizations). The way we power-PDA users linked to them and download conytent is not what the content-provider wanted. In a way, we are not adhering to the spirit of RSS itself, but as long as we don't break any laws, we, the end-users don't care.