Uses HN Firebase API to make very simple command line interface

hn.py

import time
import webbrowser

import requests

STORY_COUNT = 10

def get_stories(story_ids):
    stories = []
    for story_id in story_ids:
        res = requests.get(
                "https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/%s.json" \
                        % story_id,
                        params={
                            'print': 'pretty'
                        })
        if res.status_code == 200:
            stories.append(res.json())
    return dict(enumerate(stories))
        

def run():
    res = requests.get("https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/topstories.json",
            params={'print': 'pretty'})

    if res.status_code == 200:
        top_stories = res.json()
        stories = get_stories(top_stories[:STORY_COUNT])

        for index, story in stories.iteritems():
            print "%s) %s" % (index, story['title'])

        while True:
            story_index = raw_input("Choose story to open by number:")
            try:
                story_index = int(story_index)
            except ValueError:
                print "Must be a number"
            
            story = stories.get(story_index, None)
            if story:
                webbrowser.open(story['url'])
            else:
                print "No story at index %s exists" % story_index


if __name__ == "__main__":
    run()