OPML Sucks ASSS!!!
Okay, so I know I'm using Radio and Dave Winer and Adam Curry and everyone else even remotely connected with the Radio/Manila camp can't stop themselves from turning blue cuz they're singing OPML and RSS2.0 praises 24x7. But the FACT is OPML SUCKS!
I use J.O.E as an outliner tool. That's is not such a bad thing (first of all cuz I'm doing it, and second of all cuz I need an outlining tool and J.O.E is free and is quasi available on win/mac platforms) . The problem is that J.O.E saves files in OPML, Text or HTML format. Now, that is not such a bad thing either, but the fact is that I would like the HTML to be at least in a bulleted format, but it isn't. Its just a fucking text file wrapped in a <HTML> </HTML> pair.
At this point, if you are about to tell me to go program my own HTML output thingy for J.O.E , rest assured that I'm about to tell you to go FUCK YOURSELF!!! yes.. again .. go fuck yourself. period.
Now, is it too much to ask for anyone who is spending the time to write a ten thousand line piece of code that does intricate shit with Java and uses almost every fucking feature available in the language, but who wouldn't bother to write a simple part of the software that would export the outline in a browser friendly format?
Why? you ask? because... people have to share their ideas that they're "outlining" And not everyone can be expected to go install a bloated Java app or download and install Radio Userland just so they can look at my pathetic outline. They would tell me to fuck right off .. and they'd be absolutely right! I have no right to force them to do anything more than using tools they have already available to them (Thanks Microsoft/Mozilla/Netscape!)
Okay, so naively I think, "Thank god for google". Look for an OPML to HTML converter, and I'd be damned if I can find it. then look for an OPML parser. After 4 hours of fucking around, I find one on Leo Wong's Forth page (yes!! of all places, a FORTH program to parse XML source that I can customize to spit out HTML, but there is a problem, and I'll get to that. The other place that I find has an OPML-PYTHON parser, NO FUCKING DOCS!
Obviously, it is just too bloody much to expect a python or any other type of an OPML parser from the Radio folks cuz their mantra is Radio.. Radio.. Radio.. Radio.. Radio.. Radio.. as if the rest of the world has NOTHING better to do then bloody download this whole damn thing so that they can look at a fucking OPML file. Goddammit! this is so annoying.
Anyhow, so I write a few FORTH words to read in the OPML file, but guess what? the OPML is not really XML! (Don't believe me? Read this article at DiveIntoMark) Also, there is no way to specify nested elements. None of the sub items have a closing tag. Try parsing it and you'll know.
So here I am .. All pissed off. Oh and by the way, I did find a few web based OPML to HTML translation "services". What kind of fucking moron do you have to be to just ASSUME (did you notice the word ASS in the beginning of assume?) that just about anyone who wants to share an opml file would have access to .. nothing less.. but A PROPERLY CONFIGURED WEB SERVER!!!
[ various F words deleted ]
11:55:16 PM 
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