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25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

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Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#11

Post by linguae »

lsllc wrote: post #6

Ah the introduction of flat toolbars and the subsequent race to copy it (in MFC): https://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls/toolbar/flattoolbar/ar... Good times!

This brings back memories of playing around with Visual Basic 6 as an 11 year old, trying to figure out how exactly Microsoft came up with the flat toolbars used in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Office 97 while the toolbar controls provided by Visual Basic were the standard Windows 95 rows of buttons (though VB 6 itself used flat toolbars). Today I have no issues making flat toolbars even from scratch, but my 11 year-old self had no idea how to come up with them. Still, sometimes I miss being a kid.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#12

Post by whoisthemachine »

earthscienceman wrote: post #9

I don't think people indoctrinated in tech culture can understand just how weird something like this reads. All I could comprehend when I finished was "100 people work themselves to emotional exhaustion so American mega corp can retain monopoly status". I see nothing of valor, just a strange subculture that people are willing to sacrifice themselves to for reasons that make no sense to me. I can't imagine ruining my…

Agreed. As I read the lines on the long hours and resultant divorces, all I could think of was "...and for what? A better browser?". Certainly IE advanced the state of the art at the time, but if Microsoft hadn't won the browser wars and Netscape had remained dominant and inched along with incremental improvements, we still would have reached the point where we are today, but maybe a little later.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#13

Post by aendruk »

lsllc wrote: post #6

Ah the introduction of flat toolbars and the subsequent race to copy it (in MFC): https://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls/toolbar/flattoolbar/ar... Good times!

What does “flat” mean here? I tried looking up screenshots of this but they just look… normal.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#14

Post by brundolf »

earthscienceman wrote: post #9

I don't think people indoctrinated in tech culture can understand just how weird something like this reads. All I could comprehend when I finished was "100 people work themselves to emotional exhaustion so American mega corp can retain monopoly status". I see nothing of valor, just a strange subculture that people are willing to sacrifice themselves to for reasons that make no sense to me. I can't imagine ruining my…

Without making a value judgement, there's an aspect of the human psychology that revels in certain challenges simply because they are hard and impactful. This can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. It can separately be good or bad for the people involved, and for the world that they impact. But it is a normal and recurring part of human nature.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#15

Post by LanceJones »

earthscienceman wrote: post #9

I don't think people indoctrinated in tech culture can understand just how weird something like this reads. All I could comprehend when I finished was "100 people work themselves to emotional exhaustion so American mega corp can retain monopoly status". I see nothing of valor, just a strange subculture that people are willing to sacrifice themselves to for reasons that make no sense to me. I can't imagine ruining my…

It's entirely possible that for some of those marriages, the additional strain of the project simple accelerated the divorce timing (versus causing it).

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#16

Post by Kwpolska »

aendruk wrote: post #13
lsllc wrote: post #6

Ah the introduction of flat toolbars and the subsequent race to copy it (in MFC): https://www.codeguru.com/cpp/controls/toolbar/flattoolbar/ar... Good times!

What does “flat” mean here? I tried looking up screenshots of this but they just look… normal.

The non-flat toolbars had each button separate, with its own border. IE 3 did away with the borders. (Also seen in Office 97 vs 95, for example.)

Compare the screenshots:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/Internet_Expl... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b3/Internet_Expl...

or in Office:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Office_97_on_... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/Office_95_on_...

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#17

Post by LanceJones »

piker wrote: post #4

> Sadly, there were divorces and broken families and bad things that came out of that. But I also learned that even at a 20,000-person company, you can get a team of 100 people to work like their lives depend on it. Just curious if anyone has any idea what the financial reward was for these approx 100 folks? Presumably options worth a few millions today, but that's some price.

Ugh... that term, "broken families". I divorced when my sons were 10 and 7, and the divorce actually healed our family.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#19

Post by tdeck »

earthscienceman wrote: post #9

I don't think people indoctrinated in tech culture can understand just how weird something like this reads. All I could comprehend when I finished was "100 people work themselves to emotional exhaustion so American mega corp can retain monopoly status". I see nothing of valor, just a strange subculture that people are willing to sacrifice themselves to for reasons that make no sense to me. I can't imagine ruining my…

It's very reminiscent of "The Soul of a New Machine" which is an early example of the genre.

Re: 25 years ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 3.0

#20

Post by [deleted] »

LanceJones wrote: post #15
earthscienceman wrote: post #9

I don't think people indoctrinated in tech culture can understand just how weird something like this reads. All I could comprehend when I finished was "100 people work themselves to emotional exhaustion so American mega corp can retain monopoly status". I see nothing of valor, just a strange subculture that people are willing to sacrifice themselves to for reasons that make no sense to me. I can't imagine ruining my…

It's entirely possible that for some of those marriages, the additional strain of the project simple accelerated the divorce timing (versus causing it).

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