Working with the Twitter API in C++

Recently I’ve been playing the Twitter API through C++. I read through the Getting Started Guide and discovered that I had cURL installed on my system. It was so easy to grab my profile that I couldn’t resist having a play around to see if I could get timelines and update my status.

cURL has a an API available for a variety of languages that is really simple to use and it’s been really easy to implement some basic Twitter functionality into a command-line client. Using TinyXml to parse the results of HTTP requests I can grab posts and user information. Once it’s setup you can make a simple status update with a single method call.

The problem I have now is how to parse the temporal information. It’s one thing to grab simple text but there is a lot of numeric-data embedded in it that is quite useful. I’m looking at Boost.Date to see if that can help, the next thing to do is to be able to say how old a post is and filter results by time. Got any tips for doing this sort of thing?

I’m going to keep playing with this and see if I can come up with something useful for a proper app.

Twitter Down due to DDOS Attack

The Fail Whale strikes again! According to this Guardian article, Twitter has been down due to a Denial Of Service attack since 3pm. I’d tweet the link, but obviously I can’t. Oh no, I can feel the shakes starting as I haven’t been able to look at my twitter stream for a few hours. Oh well, I’d use Facebook but my fear of flying sheep and superpokes prevents me from logging in .

• Twitter crashes following malicious online attack – Gaurdian.co.uk

Edit: OK, so it’s back up now. Looks like twitter gadget on my iGoogle page hasn’t realised yet. Logging into twitter.com is working. Guess the Twitter guys payed the ransom or relocated their servers to OZ.

Microbloggers Anonymous – Reasons to Tweet

“Hello. My name is Matt, and I’m a Microblogger”

photo credit: anomalous4

I’ve been using Twitter for a little while now. Historically I always kind of avoided social networking but after being convinced to join Facebook last year I got the bug. Twitter seems to have the Marmite effect on most people, yes you either love it or hate it. One of my friends, who is something of a web hermit, laughed when I mentioned micro-blogging and questioned why anyone would want to do such a thing. His derision fueled my self-doubt, “Why am I doing it?” I asked myself.

1. Self-Expression. This is the most import use for me. I’m probably as guily as anyone when it comes to this. I spent Friday tweeting about my hangover. I know the wider world doesn’t care, but I’m a complainer and I find it a nice outlet. I put my little message in a bottle out there, and sometimes I get a reply.
2. Conversation. It can be lonely in the Meatspace. When I’m sitting bored at work and someone puts out an interesting question or makes a statement, I can tweet them with my 2 cents. It’s a nice indirect method of communication. People compare it to SMS messaging, which I agree with, however unlike SMS, I don’t really care if I get a reply.
3. Self-promotion. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of shameless self-promotion. I might tweet a link to my blog every now and again in an attempt to build a bit of traffic.
4. Sharing. This kind of links in with number 2. If I find something I think my followers might find interesting I’ll post a link. I use del.icio.us and share on Google Reader but Twitter means people see the link straight away and will tell me if they like it.

I guess other people might find other reasons to micro-blog but those are mine. Is there anything wrong with it? I don’t think so. It is, what it is, a fun little tool for communication.