I think I have an answer for that, too. Novobot not just displays
headlines, it saves them in another ("current") cache, which is
preserved between runs. And it can run continuously, adding new
headlines to the existing ones. A headline is added to the current
cache, but that does not mean it is marked as read. So, your writer
might load Novobot in the morning and leave it running all day long,
then at six o'clock he might start browsing them (while Novobot is still
running its channel queue). When all headlines are reviewed (not
necessarily in one go, since Novobot preserves the current position in
the headline list, too), the writer would mark them as read, and they
would be removed from the current headlines cache and put into
duplicates cache. If he decided to review a headline that is already
marked as "read" and not visible by default, he may turn on display of
read headlines and see it. And if the writer decides to review
yesterday's headlines a couple days later, no problem, since everything
is preserved between runs. For the sake of efficiency, there is
configurable maximum headline count in the current cache (the same as
number of headlines displayed in the main Novobot window). The default
is 2048.

Gleb Dolgich
Proggle
http://www.proggle.com
Installer/GD - a better Windows installer
http://www.novobot.com - Novobot - the Web is news!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Morbus Iff [mailto:morbus@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 9:03 PM
> To: syndication@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [syndication] Re: XML-RPC and the Need to Cash In
>
>
> >I've found one solution to this problem. Novobot keeps
> local cache of >displayed headlines, and each channel has
> its own expiration day count, >after which its headlines are
> deleted from the cache (usually it is a >week or two). When
> a headline is displayed, it is added to the cache, >and if
> the same headline appears again, it is not displayed any
> more. I >don't know if this is a good approach, but it works
> quite well.
>
> My problem with that [1] is that we're assuming too much about user
> activity. I know a book writer who loads up AmphetaDesk in
> the morning, and
> then goes about his morning routine. He may not actually view
> the headlines
> in AmphetaDesk until six that night.
>
> If AmphetaDesk says "well, hey, he loaded me, therefore he
> read me", and
> deletes the item from view, then that person will no longer
> be able to see
> the item, even though he never saw it in the first place.
>
> The same holds true for the daily expiration - if someone
> loads AmphetaDesk
> on Monday, gets sidetracked and doesn't load it again until
> Friday, they're
> going to be missing the Monday news.
>
> [1] Note, this is by far, not all I have to say on the topic.
> I have a
> zillion other emails to answer, but wanted to quickly chime in.