Since the release of the installer for the alpha version of the Nightcrawler edition of RSS Bandit we have fixed a number of bugs. We worked on a number of performance issues related to the responsiveness of the application. We also fixed a number of issues with our newsgroup support including fixing issues with password protected newsgroups. We also think we tracked down the issue that led to some items occassionally showing up in the wrong feeds.

You can download the next iteration of the Nightcrawler alpha at RssBandit.1.3.0.36.Nightcrawler.Alpha.zip.

We aren't ready to release a beta version of the installer because we aren't feature complete yet. There are two features that still need to be completely implemented; downloading of Enclosures/Podcasts and notifications of new comments on "watched" posts.

Also some features need fleshing out. Torsten pointed out this morning that I need to add support for RFC 2047 so that we can handle non-ASCII author names and post titles as part of the newsgroup support. I had hoped to find a free library with code that already does that but it seems that the only ones I can find are for sale. I guess writing that code must suck so much that no one wants to give it away for free. There goes a weekend or two. :)

NEW FEATURES IN NIGHTCRAWLER

  • NNTP Newsgroups support: Users can specify a public NNTP server such as news.microsoft.com and subscribe to newsgroups on that server. Permalinks in a newsgroup post point to the post on Google Groups.

  • Item Manipulation from Newspaper Views:  Items can be marked as read or unread and flagged or unflagged directly from the newspaper view. This improves end user work flow as one no longer has to leave the newspaper view and right-click on the list view to either flag or mark a post as unread. 

  • Subscription Wizard: The process for subscribing to newsgroups, search results and web feeds has been greatly simplified. For example, users no longer need to know the web feed of a particular web site to subscribe to it but can instead specify the web page URL and discovery of its web feed is done automatically. 

  • Synchronization with Newsgator Online: Users can synchronize the state of their subscribed feeds (read/unread posts, new/deleted feeds, etc) between RSS Bandit and their account on Newsgator Online. This allows the best of both worlds where one can use both a rich desktop client (RSS Bandit) and a web-based RSS reader (Newsgator Online) without having to worry about marking things as read in both places.

  • Using back and forward arrows to view last post seen in reading pane: When navigating various feeds in the RSS Bandit tree view it is very useful to be able to go back to the last feed or item viewed especially when using the [spacebar] button to read unread items. RSS Bandit now provides a way to navigate back and forth between items read in the reading pane using the back and forward buttons in the toolbar. NEW!!!

  • Atom 1.0 support: The Atom 1.0 syndication format is now supported. 

  • Threaded Posts Now Optional: The feature where items that link to each other are shown as connected items reminiscent of threaded discussions can now be disabled and is off by default. This feature is very processor intensive and can slow down the average computer to the point that is unusable if one is subscribed to a large number of feeds.

  • UI Improvements: Icons in the tree view have been improved to make them more distinctive and also visually separate newsgroups from web feeds.

 

I've been wondering if we shouldn't just lock down this release and push out the podcasting features to the Jubilee release. What do y'all think?


 

Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:38:29 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I'm pretty content with RSS Bandit for the moment.

At the same time I'm already getting my podcasts through itunes so I wouldn't mind if that feature got pushed to the next release.

I'm not sure what the uptake on Atom 1.0 support is yet, if that becomes popular then it would put more pressure to get this release out earlier rather than later.

As I'm typing I'm also realizing that I'm probably not going to remember to come back and check how this comment thread goes... maybe I do want the release earlier than later. :-)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:51:27 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I personally don't listen to any podcasts at all (yeah, I'm behind the times ;), so it wouldn't bother me at all if podcast support got pushed to the next release.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 6:54:34 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I'm fine with Podcast support getting pushed to the next release. I use iTunes for all of my podcast needs as well. One quick question though, as I haven't been brave enough to try to Alpha yet - is there a setting for auto-synchronizing every x minutes/hours or is it only on startup/shutdown?
Chris Slatt
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 7:31:04 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Skipping podcasts is OK with me, too. Listening to podcasts simply takes too much time, compared to what you get from it!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 7:56:54 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Dare: I hope these release names aren't significant. I'd hate to think the next version of Bandit will be sparkly and really, really lame. :)
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 8:11:06 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I won't miss podcast support at all... it's perfectly ok for me if it gets pushed to the next realease :-)
anonymous
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:23:42 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Dare,

I'm all for getting the current features ASAP. The other stuff can wait!

Thanks for some great software!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:54:42 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Couldn't care less about podcasting myself, either, but would appreciate promoting the alpha to a release soon.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 7:55:17 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I'll be the loan voice in the dark. I don't use iTunes, and I'd love to have support for enclosures. The ATOM 1.0 support I'm not so worried about -- when going around and subscribing I can't remember ever being limited by the lack of support for that.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 2:47:00 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Nice refresh Dare !

The "loading list..." is super fast now, and "Update All Feeds" is much quicker, very nice.

I would suggest using the latest refresh just for the improved responsiveness.

Makes me happy :-)
Toby
Thursday, October 27, 2005 1:08:53 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Podcasting is one of the biggest features I'm looking forward to. I hate needing two applications for my feeds. But it looks like I'm one of the few that are waiting for it.
Thursday, October 27, 2005 12:06:36 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Dare, I tried out the new release. There are bugs, but overall I like it better.

I have a question about upload/download. A long long time ago I managed to add into RSSBandit code that would upload and download the feed list from storage automatically. One of the reasons I didn't continue was I was worried about corruption caused by the auto-update happening in a different thread from the rest of the update engine. I never understood how different parts of RSSBandit kept from steping on each other. For example, if updates happen at the same time the user clicks on "Mark as read" -- how do you preven that race condition happening.

The Subscribe wizzard takes you through every single option. It takes too long to add a new feed. Could the wizard do the simplest thing, and then have a check box "for advanced features..." or similar?

It is a great job. The only reader I use right now. -Gordon.
Thursday, October 27, 2005 2:48:36 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
I keep getting the following error after about 5 minutes:

---------------------------
Setup Error
---------------------------
Failed to load resources from resource file
Please check your Setup
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

After clicking "OK", RSS Bandit exits.

Note that I'm running w/o Administrator rights.
Saturday, October 29, 2005 6:43:15 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
Hi

Podcasting can be postponed, would like to see the new version at the earliest.

thanks for the product.
Sreeram
Monday, October 31, 2005 7:37:30 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I vote release with the current featureset. Podcast support will be nice, but iPodder works okay for me right now. The performance increase with large subscription lists is phenomenal, and the other features are looking good too.
Comments are closed.