It is essentially the same thing.
But i do agree with you, it was a simple and useful feature that i would also like to see back again.
$story['id'] = $storyid;
$story['posttime'] = formatTimestamp($article->published());
$story['title'] = $article->textlink()." : ".$article->title();
$story['text'] = $article->hometext();
$bodytext = $article->bodytext();
$article->textlink()." : ".
<table width=100% border=0>
<tr>
<!-- start news item loop -->
</tr>
</table>
<table width=100% border=0>
<td>
<!-- start news item loop -->
</td>
</table>