Hey all,
I am working on a project which is very important to me.

I am proicient in PHP, XHTML, MySql, and am pretty decent with XML.

All the dynamic stuff such as, blog content, title and so on are easy enough for me to do, but, I want to create permalinks, and make my blog available via RSS feeds.

I would like to do as much as I can without using DOM or other modules that are "optional", so that if I choose to share my script with people, they can use it even if they don't have that particular module.

I do not know the first thing about RSS feeds, so, I am looking for a good resource (either book or online tutorial) that can walk me through setting them up step by step.

As far as permalinks go, I am aware that I will have to somehow modify the htaccess file, and tell it that if a user goes to /blog/title/ it brings them to /blog/index.php?title=my_title

I have full access to the htaccess in my root directory, and subdirectories, but not the root directory of the server itself. The server is set to allow my htaccess files to work.

I have been able to set these manually via my cpanel, but, I want the system to be automated.

This means, I would assume that my database would have the title itself "my title" and then automatically put another field that goes my_title. Then would manipulate the htaccess appropriately?

I need a resource to learn how to work that too then.

I am doing this from scratch, and so far I have the XHTML set up, but haven't started on the db schema, because I want to wait untill I understand everything first.

Or is the htaccess better changed via CGI?

Any resources that would help me with these two topics would be fantastic.

Thanks
Sage