Peter's Blog

I appreciate your comments about FeederReader. There is a new version about to be released that improves Feederreader.

Enclosures *are* a little fiddly because feed producers don't properly include the LENGTH attribute. In prior versions of FeederReader, this caused problems because I assumed that what the feed producer put in the LENGTH attribute was correct. The new version of FeederReader still looks at this attribute, but it has less dire consequences if it is specified incorrectly.

One thing that makes FeederReader seem complicated is that you can read news, update feeds, download podcasts, and listen to a podcast all at the same time. I'd be happy to explain this further if you like, but FeederReader feels "non-linear" because of this. You can do anything at (almost) any time: pop up the large status then make it disappear just by tapping the status bar at the bottom, check on warning messages generated during downloads/updates then continue reading (even if warning messages pile up), change the number of simultaneous downloads while downloading, delete the current podcast and start playing the next one without losing your place reading news, display a message while entering a new RSS Feed.

Plus FeederReader can be configured in a lot of different ways. There are "Feed Properties" that you can apply to all feeds, then override a few of those properties for an entire category of feeds, then override THOSE properties for one of the feeds in the category.

I know that all these things make FeederReader seem a little complicated. Once you use it for a little while, it becomes fairly straightforward.

I hope that you take the time to give me some critical feedback on FeederReader so I can improve the program (the FeederReader Forums would be a great place to provide that feedback!). And if you'd like to try the Alpha version, let me know!

Greg Smith

Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcasts

FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

I hope my criticism doesn't seem harsh to make you go on the defensive. I do appreciate the effort you have put into it.

When I tried FeederReader I was mainly looking for something to download enclosures, I didn't plan on reading rss feeds with it. Egress has taught me that a hand-held rss reader is a good thing and the pocketpc may well be my primary rss reading platform.

I will give FeederReader another try but I do like Egress, especially navigating articles using just the D pad, not needing the stylus. I have noticed that it might be chopping off the last line or so of articles, something I need to investigate.

On a totally unrelated note I work with someone who is your namesake. Or maybe it is you Greg, a closet programmer?

Peter

Nope! I'm not the Greg you know

Thanks for your re-review of FeederReader. I look forward to your comments. FeederReader cannot be controlled *entirely* from the D-Pad, as that is not easy to do in the Compact Framework. But it is fairly straightforward to press the "Next Arrow" icon on the toolbar to go to the next message. And you can customize that icon for a variety of functions "Next Message", "Next Unread", "Newest Unread", then use the D-Pad to scroll up and down in the message itself. You may find that you don't need any other buttons for reading. And you can go "Full Screen" to make more room for the text of the message.

I'll be looking into hardware button control at some point after the move to 2.0.

Regarding critism being harsh: no, I didn't think it was harsh at all. People have different preferences in how they want software to work. I was trying to point out some of the features of FeederReader that contribute to it seeming complex and fiddly. Some people will prefer having those features, others may prefer other interfaces.

In the end, I hope that FeederReader suits most people's needs, and I know that it *can*. I need to keep tweaking it and help everyone to *see* that it can.

If after *knowing* all the features and capabilities of FeederReader, you still choose another program, then at least it's a choice based on knowledge and preference.

Sorry to wax philosophical, but *do* let me know what you think after trying FeederReader again.

Greg Smith

Author, FeederReader - Pocket PC *direct* RSS text, audio, video, podcasts

FeederReader.com - Download on the Road

I purchased FeederReader on March 30, 2008, but I have never received a "registration key"? I tried to find a phone number or email address in order to get ahold of someone, but I can't find any. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.