5 ms·

Newsraft: feed reader with ncurses user interface

43 points by vaygr 4y ago

sudobash1 4y ago
I move between machines a lot, and so gave up on having a local RSS reader. I looked for a self-hosted web one, but didn't find one that I liked. So I setup a dovecot IMAP server and use feed2imap-go to sync my RSS feeds to IMAP folders. Now I can use email clients on my machines to access my RSS feeds in a synchronized manner. 1: https://github.com/Necoro/feed2imap-go https://github.com/Necoro/feed2imap-go
- bArray 4y ago
  I really like this idea! Using email to synchronize RSS feeds is an awesome abuse of email! > "It is a rewrite in Go of the wonderful, but unfortunately now unmaintained" Is it still working? If not, I might need to read up on the IMAP protocol... Could be cool to hack such a thing together. One feature I would suggest is to import an OPML file to help those (like me) with insane numbers of existing RSS feeds.
  - Necoro 4y ago
    > Is it still working? Yes. Your sentence misses a comma and a word: feed2imap is (more or less) unmaintained, therefore I rewrote it in Go, resulting in feed2imap-go > One feature I would suggest is to import an OPML file to help those (like me) with insane numbers of existing RSS feeds. Please feel free to open an issue. Note: Import does not make that much sense, but writing a generator that spits out the yaml file (or portion thereof) could be useful.
    - bArray 4y ago
      > Yes. Your sentence misses a comma and a word: feed2imap is (more or less) unmaintained, therefore I rewrote it in Go, resulting in feed2imap-go Yeah I saw this after, no idea why I read that wrong. First thing I do when I see a repo is try to figure out if it's being actively developed and if that makes a difference. > Please feel free to open an issue. Note: Import does not make that much sense, but writing a generator that spits out the yaml file (or portion thereof) could be useful. I did think after that this might be something suitable for a small Python script. I don't know any Go (and am too busy too learn), otherwise I would hack it together myself.
mikl 4y ago
Not sure I’d call a terminal-based RSS reader “suckless”, but to each his own, I guess. Personally, I prefer using one that renders HTML and shows pictures :)
- altairprime 4y ago
  Sounds like a good exercise for a libnotcurses port!
- yoyohello13 4y ago
  Part of the ‘suckless’ brand is that the software is simple and easy to extend with minimal out of the box features.
- laserdancepony 4y ago
  If you missed it, check it out: https://suckless.org/ https://suckless.org/
divyekapoor 4y ago
Demo gif & video please! You'd have more adoption if I knew what I was getting upon install.
- gnull 4y ago
  And also instructions of where to put the feeds file (and maybe an example that I could copy-paste).
- footlose_3815 4y ago
  There really should be a standard for self-published OSS projects to have a simple animated gif. screen2gif is so awesome for this purpose and also OSS.
gnull 4y ago
Funny. I was working on an RSS reader inspired by Newsboat too. Although my project's goal was to avoid the C's rough edges that Newsboat has: better parsers, richer feeds file syntax, more configurability (done in a nicer way), less segfaults. I chose to implement it in Haskell, even got a working prototype, but then didn't keep working on it consistently (and I was unsure about the concept). Newsboat's authors are rewriting it in Rust. They concluded (last time I checked) that C and some early design decisions were bad for its development now and they want to rewrite it in Rust because this is something that can be done gradually (and, I think, because they liked Rust). Before they settled down with Rust, they even considered Haskell, but Rust won. Surprising that this project is in C. Given a chance to start fresh, why not choose a better language? Even Rust, I think, is unnecessarily low-level for an applied, not performance-critical program like an RSS reader. That's why I chose Haskell. Any other high-level programming language would be a better choice than C.
- vaygr 4y ago
  I think you confused C with C++ for Newsboat.
  - gnull 4y ago
    You're right. But the drawbacks I was talking about are the same, so no difference.
- bArray 4y ago
  I also worked on an RSS feed reader that was supposed to work on both desktop, mobile and low-RAM embedded systems (<64MB of RAM). It was also written in C, but the focus was on bringing a synced decentralised cross-platform experience. I ran out of time to continue working on it, but could be convinced to start again. > Newsboat's authors are rewriting it in Rust. They concluded (last time I checked) that C and some early design decisions were bad for its development now and they want to rewrite it in Rust because this is something that can be done gradually (and, I think, because they liked Rust). Before they settled down with Rust, they even considered Haskell, but Rust won. There seems to be a common pattern that people believe "program that compiles to binary suffers from segfaults, therefore use Rust". Rust will not fix your poorly designed code, now it is harder to develop and runs slower. Your broken logic is still broken. > Surprising that this project is in C. Given a chance to start fresh, why not choose a better language? Even Rust, I think, is unnecessarily low-level for an applied, not performance-critical program like an RSS reader. That's why I chose Haskell. Any other high-level programming language would be a better choice than C. The code could do with some comments, but it's otherwise clean. It has been mostly worked on by Grigory Kirillov [1] and maybe this is a language they like [1]. Given the use of `func_name(void)` and `int64_t` it seems like somebody quite capable of writing C safely. With some regression testing this could be a fast and reliable program. [1] https://codeberg.org/grisha https://codeberg.org/grisha
csw-001 4y ago
Newsblur has been suckless for years.
- gnull 4y ago
  > IFTTT Support > Third-party Apps > Free Account: Up to 64 sites, doesn't show the full text of the article > Premium Subscription > No desktop app Really?
  - noloblo 4y ago
    @gnull is there a github repo of your haskell prototype
    - gnull 4y ago
      https://sr.ht/~ph14nix/kalina/ https://sr.ht/~ph14nix/kalina/ Sure, here it is. Enjoy! It can do all the basic things, but stuff like error handling is rough (it will panic if it fails to parse something).
      - noloblo 4y ago
        Is there a way to cabal build it @gnull
        gnull 4y ago
        No, I never tested it with cabal. You build it with "stack build" and install with "stack install". Let me know what you think about it (on the mailing list or in a direct email) once you try! https://docs.haskellstack.org/en/stable/ https://docs.haskellstack.org/en/stable/
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
sarcasticadmin 4y ago
Ive been using Newsboat since before it was called Newsboat, when it was called Newsbeuter. Newsboat does have some oddities in its config and open issues that still havent been resolved (I suspect due to the rewrite) so this alternative does make me curious to try something thats a fresh start.
- vaygr 4y ago
  I abandoned newsboat the day it introduced the first Rust dependency and switched to the Android app Feeder. Some just prefer simple and minimalist software for their daily life, and there's no place for the Rust ecosystem there. For this reason projects like dwm, st, dmenu, bspwm, sxcs, sxhkd, nsxiv, xmenu, xplugd, fzy, nnn, xbanish, scdoc and many others will never be rewritten in Rust or adopted by users who strive for simplicity rather than colorful terminal output. memory safety is just not worth it. Judging by this list [0] even Python or Go have more chances to align with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things. And I hope this trend of fresh starts continues. [0] https://suckless.org/rocks/ https://suckless.org/rocks/
  - sliken 4y ago
    Not sure I'm getting your point. Somehow Rust forces you to have colorful terminal output? Rust is high overhead? You can't strive for simplicity and write in Rust? Sure it's a bit silly to rewrite a nice simple tool for because it's the new fad. However if writing a new simple tool I'd certainly consider Rust. How is Rust incompatible with aligning with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things?
    - vaygr 4y ago
      > Somehow Rust forces you to have colorful terminal output? Rust is high overhead? You can't strive for simplicity and write in Rust? This was more of a sarcastic reference to https://github.com/mTvare6/hello-world.rs https://github.com/mTvare6/hello-world.rs But I don't think Rust fits in here: https://suckless.org/philosophy/ https://suckless.org/philosophy/ > How is Rust incompatible with aligning with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things? I would say it attracts different kind of developers that in turn make respective design choices, and I believe Rust, its syntax, package management ecosystem and community reflect that. Can you write simple system tools in JavaScript or brainfuck (not trying to compare here)? Sure, but the thinking process, design decisions, approaches would be drastically different compared to what I'd consider good and elegant code. ANSI C is probably the best balance you can get between product complexity, coding complexity and usability of the output (which again, has to be simple: writing something like Kubernetes in C is probably not the best idea, hence it was implemented in a more suitable language). Though there are some very good and complex products, like the Linux kernel, Redis or Varnish. All of them are very modular, as complex products should be. Just by having a musl library and tcc [0] you can get a lot done. I'd prefer that over complexity that Rust toolchain involves and crates ecosystem mess. [0] https://bellard.org/tcc/ https://bellard.org/tcc/
user3939382 4y ago
To any contributors: add screenshots to the readme, they’re fun to look at.

43 points by vaygr 4y ago

I move between machines a lot, and so gave up on having a local RSS reader. I looked for a self-hosted web one, but didn't find one that I liked. So I setup a dovecot IMAP server and use feed2imap-go to sync my RSS feeds to IMAP folders. Now I can use email clients on my machines to access my RSS feeds in a synchronized manner. 1: https://github.com/Necoro/feed2imap-go https://github.com/Necoro/feed2imap-go

bArray 4y ago
I really like this idea! Using email to synchronize RSS feeds is an awesome abuse of email! > "It is a rewrite in Go of the wonderful, but unfortunately now unmaintained" Is it still working? If not, I might need to read up on the IMAP protocol... Could be cool to hack such a thing together. One feature I would suggest is to import an OPML file to help those (like me) with insane numbers of existing RSS feeds.
- Necoro 4y ago
  > Is it still working? Yes. Your sentence misses a comma and a word: feed2imap is (more or less) unmaintained, therefore I rewrote it in Go, resulting in feed2imap-go > One feature I would suggest is to import an OPML file to help those (like me) with insane numbers of existing RSS feeds. Please feel free to open an issue. Note: Import does not make that much sense, but writing a generator that spits out the yaml file (or portion thereof) could be useful.
  - bArray 4y ago
    > Yes. Your sentence misses a comma and a word: feed2imap is (more or less) unmaintained, therefore I rewrote it in Go, resulting in feed2imap-go Yeah I saw this after, no idea why I read that wrong. First thing I do when I see a repo is try to figure out if it's being actively developed and if that makes a difference. > Please feel free to open an issue. Note: Import does not make that much sense, but writing a generator that spits out the yaml file (or portion thereof) could be useful. I did think after that this might be something suitable for a small Python script. I don't know any Go (and am too busy too learn), otherwise I would hack it together myself.

mikl 4y ago

Not sure I’d call a terminal-based RSS reader “suckless”, but to each his own, I guess. Personally, I prefer using one that renders HTML and shows pictures :)

altairprime 4y ago
Sounds like a good exercise for a libnotcurses port!
yoyohello13 4y ago
Part of the ‘suckless’ brand is that the software is simple and easy to extend with minimal out of the box features.
laserdancepony 4y ago
If you missed it, check it out: https://suckless.org/ https://suckless.org/

divyekapoor 4y ago

Demo gif & video please! You'd have more adoption if I knew what I was getting upon install.

gnull 4y ago
And also instructions of where to put the feeds file (and maybe an example that I could copy-paste).
footlose_3815 4y ago
There really should be a standard for self-published OSS projects to have a simple animated gif. screen2gif is so awesome for this purpose and also OSS.

gnull 4y ago

Funny. I was working on an RSS reader inspired by Newsboat too. Although my project's goal was to avoid the C's rough edges that Newsboat has: better parsers, richer feeds file syntax, more configurability (done in a nicer way), less segfaults. I chose to implement it in Haskell, even got a working prototype, but then didn't keep working on it consistently (and I was unsure about the concept). Newsboat's authors are rewriting it in Rust. They concluded (last time I checked) that C and some early design decisions were bad for its development now and they want to rewrite it in Rust because this is something that can be done gradually (and, I think, because they liked Rust). Before they settled down with Rust, they even considered Haskell, but Rust won. Surprising that this project is in C. Given a chance to start fresh, why not choose a better language? Even Rust, I think, is unnecessarily low-level for an applied, not performance-critical program like an RSS reader. That's why I chose Haskell. Any other high-level programming language would be a better choice than C.

vaygr 4y ago
I think you confused C with C++ for Newsboat.
- gnull 4y ago
  You're right. But the drawbacks I was talking about are the same, so no difference.
bArray 4y ago
I also worked on an RSS feed reader that was supposed to work on both desktop, mobile and low-RAM embedded systems (<64MB of RAM). It was also written in C, but the focus was on bringing a synced decentralised cross-platform experience. I ran out of time to continue working on it, but could be convinced to start again. > Newsboat's authors are rewriting it in Rust. They concluded (last time I checked) that C and some early design decisions were bad for its development now and they want to rewrite it in Rust because this is something that can be done gradually (and, I think, because they liked Rust). Before they settled down with Rust, they even considered Haskell, but Rust won. There seems to be a common pattern that people believe "program that compiles to binary suffers from segfaults, therefore use Rust". Rust will not fix your poorly designed code, now it is harder to develop and runs slower. Your broken logic is still broken. > Surprising that this project is in C. Given a chance to start fresh, why not choose a better language? Even Rust, I think, is unnecessarily low-level for an applied, not performance-critical program like an RSS reader. That's why I chose Haskell. Any other high-level programming language would be a better choice than C. The code could do with some comments, but it's otherwise clean. It has been mostly worked on by Grigory Kirillov [1] and maybe this is a language they like [1]. Given the use of `func_name(void)` and `int64_t` it seems like somebody quite capable of writing C safely. With some regression testing this could be a fast and reliable program. [1] https://codeberg.org/grisha https://codeberg.org/grisha

csw-001 4y ago

Newsblur has been suckless for years.

gnull 4y ago
> IFTTT Support > Third-party Apps > Free Account: Up to 64 sites, doesn't show the full text of the article > Premium Subscription > No desktop app Really?
- noloblo 4y ago
  @gnull is there a github repo of your haskell prototype
  - gnull 4y ago
    https://sr.ht/~ph14nix/kalina/ https://sr.ht/~ph14nix/kalina/ Sure, here it is. Enjoy! It can do all the basic things, but stuff like error handling is rough (it will panic if it fails to parse something).
    - noloblo 4y ago
      Is there a way to cabal build it @gnull
      - gnull 4y ago
        No, I never tested it with cabal. You build it with "stack build" and install with "stack install". Let me know what you think about it (on the mailing list or in a direct email) once you try! https://docs.haskellstack.org/en/stable/ https://docs.haskellstack.org/en/stable/
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]

sarcasticadmin 4y ago

Ive been using Newsboat since before it was called Newsboat, when it was called Newsbeuter. Newsboat does have some oddities in its config and open issues that still havent been resolved (I suspect due to the rewrite) so this alternative does make me curious to try something thats a fresh start.

vaygr 4y ago
I abandoned newsboat the day it introduced the first Rust dependency and switched to the Android app Feeder. Some just prefer simple and minimalist software for their daily life, and there's no place for the Rust ecosystem there. For this reason projects like dwm, st, dmenu, bspwm, sxcs, sxhkd, nsxiv, xmenu, xplugd, fzy, nnn, xbanish, scdoc and many others will never be rewritten in Rust or adopted by users who strive for simplicity rather than colorful terminal output. memory safety is just not worth it. Judging by this list [0] even Python or Go have more chances to align with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things. And I hope this trend of fresh starts continues. [0] https://suckless.org/rocks/ https://suckless.org/rocks/
- sliken 4y ago
  Not sure I'm getting your point. Somehow Rust forces you to have colorful terminal output? Rust is high overhead? You can't strive for simplicity and write in Rust? Sure it's a bit silly to rewrite a nice simple tool for because it's the new fad. However if writing a new simple tool I'd certainly consider Rust. How is Rust incompatible with aligning with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things?
  - vaygr 4y ago
    > Somehow Rust forces you to have colorful terminal output? Rust is high overhead? You can't strive for simplicity and write in Rust? This was more of a sarcastic reference to https://github.com/mTvare6/hello-world.rs https://github.com/mTvare6/hello-world.rs But I don't think Rust fits in here: https://suckless.org/philosophy/ https://suckless.org/philosophy/ > How is Rust incompatible with aligning with the philosophy that encourages building simple yet functional things? I would say it attracts different kind of developers that in turn make respective design choices, and I believe Rust, its syntax, package management ecosystem and community reflect that. Can you write simple system tools in JavaScript or brainfuck (not trying to compare here)? Sure, but the thinking process, design decisions, approaches would be drastically different compared to what I'd consider good and elegant code. ANSI C is probably the best balance you can get between product complexity, coding complexity and usability of the output (which again, has to be simple: writing something like Kubernetes in C is probably not the best idea, hence it was implemented in a more suitable language). Though there are some very good and complex products, like the Linux kernel, Redis or Varnish. All of them are very modular, as complex products should be. Just by having a musl library and tcc [0] you can get a lot done. I'd prefer that over complexity that Rust toolchain involves and crates ecosystem mess. [0] https://bellard.org/tcc/ https://bellard.org/tcc/

user3939382 4y ago

To any contributors: add screenshots to the readme, they’re fun to look at.