π•―π–”π–”π–’π–˜π–ˆπ–—π–”π–‘π–‘β„’Mar 10

Good morning! Today I’m hosting a Mastodon interview with Brent Simmons / @brentsimmons.
Brent is the creator of NetNewsWire / @NetNewsWire and a long-time voice in the RSS and open web community.

I’ll be asking a series of questions here in this thread and we’d love to hear form you.. Brent will reply whenever it’s convenient for him.

Follow along using #interview.

Let’s begin.

Show threadπ•―π–”π–”π–’π–˜π–ˆπ–—π–”π–‘π–‘β„’Mar 10
Hello, @brentsimmons, thanks for joining us for today’s interview. Over the course of your career, what beliefs about software development have you changed your mind about?
#interview
Show threadAlan is @cogdog πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10
@Doomscroll I am curious to hear @brentsimmons share the spark story for NetNewsWire, what spurned him to create the first version? What were you doing with RSS at the time? I recall before seeing his app I was using Bloglines.
Show threadBrent Simmons

@cogdog @Doomscroll I was working at UserLand Software, on Frontier. I was lead developer of the blogging system Manila. Dave Winer, UserLand owner and CEO, was an RSS and blogging pioneer, and I was along for the ride.

Once I left, in early 2002, I wanted to do something with RSS β€” there were, due to our efforts, thousands of blogs then with RSS feeds.

I also wanted to write my first Cocoa app, and that ended up being MacNewsWire, which was a tiny thing which led to NetNewsWire.

Mar 10 at 3:59pmWeb
Show threadAlan is @cogdog πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10

@brentsimmons @Doomscroll Nice. I am sure I heard about NetNewsWire from @dnorman at University of Calgary. We did some talks for educators in 2003 called "Whats the Fuss About RSS?" run from a wiki https://cogdogblog.com/2003/06/whats-the/

demoing how to integrate syndicated content into learning management systems.

The wiki is archived, there's an interesting list of other aggretors from the paleo era.

https://web-wp.archive.org/web/20080511123049/http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca:80/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?TheFuss

What’s the Fuss about RSS?

a blog/wiki paper for the July 11, 2003 Learning Objects Virtual Community of Practice (LOVCOP) teleconference Alan Levine, Maricopa Community Colleges Brian Lamb, University of British Columbia D&…

CogDogBlog
Show threadAlan is @cogdog πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10
@brentsimmons @Doomscroll @dnorman I found this ~2003 screenshot of some of my NetNewsWire feeds --that's your blog highlighted @dnorman !! Trackbacks and Learning Objects FTW.
Show threadD'Arcy Norman πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10
@cogdog @brentsimmons @Doomscroll love that old school Aqua interface!
Show threadRob FahrniMar 10

@cogdog @NetNewsWire @brentsimmons @Doomscroll @dnorman Looks lickable to me!

I always liked the pinstripes.

Show threadBrent SimmonsMar 10
@cogdog @Doomscroll @dnorman @NetNewsWire I never got more compliments on NetNewsWire being beautiful than back in those days!
Show threadD'Arcy Norman πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10
@brentsimmons @cogdog @Doomscroll @NetNewsWire It's time to fully embrace skeuomorphism again! A leather-bound interface with diodes and switches and drawers etc. would be amazing. This white-on-white-on-molten-glass thing is just so bland.
Show threadD'Arcy Norman πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦Mar 10
@brentsimmons @cogdog @Doomscroll @NetNewsWire (although I would pay money to get a working version of the Rhapsody UI from the dev. kit days…)
Show threadDownes 🍁Mar 10
@cogdog @brentsimmons @Doomscroll @dnorman That list of subscriptions takes me back
Show threadπ•―π–”π–”π–’π–˜π–ˆπ–—π–”π–‘π–‘β„’Mar 10

@brentsimmons @cogdog Did MacNewsWire start as a serious product idea, or was it more like a small experiment that unexpectedly grew into something bigger?

#interview

Show threadBrent SimmonsMar 10

@Doomscroll @cogdog MacNewsWire was practice and I knew it was practice at the time.

It grew into NetNewsWire, which I knew would be my first commercial app β€” and I expected it to be unsuccessful, but I was obsessed with it, so I had to do it first before going on to the apps that I thought would actually make some money.

I never got to those other apps. I don’t even remember what my ideas were at the time. πŸ˜€

#interview