Re: Washington Post politics headlines

[Aaron Swartz <aswartz@swartzfam.com>]

tdgoddard@yahoo.com <tdgoddard@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Of course I ran into a problem with my perl script that reads RSS
> files (Anaconda Clipper at anaconda.net) in that it doesn't seem to
> be able to read RSS 1.0 format. What a drag... I either need to find
> a new script or get Anaconda to update theirs.

Odd. RSS 1.0 should be perfectly compatible with things that can read 0.9 --
if you send me the script I can take a look at it.

> How do you make these so quick? Is there an easy way to teach someone
> with modest programming skills?

Sure, it's much easier now since I've set up a system for making them. You
can make them too -- here's what to do:

1) First, view source for the page.

2) Find the piece of HTML that signifies the beginning of the list of RSS
items. It might be something obvious, like a comment that says <!-- this is
the beginning of the list --> or perhaps it's the beginning of a <TABLE>. Do
the same thing for the end of the list.

3) Then find something that signifies the beginning and end of each item.
For this page it was pretty simple -- <p> and </p>.

4) Finish up by writing a title and description for the feed.

Send all of these bits to me, along with the URL for the site, and I'll put
it up. And again, if you control the site, you can do it all automatically
by following the instructions at:

http://logicerror.com/blogifyYourPage

Thanks,

-- 
[ Aaron Swartz | me@aaronsw.com | http://www.aaronsw.com ]