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Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

opensource.microsoft.com

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Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#151

Post by guestbest »

afavour wrote: post #118

> The early web was filled with experimentation. “What if chat rooms looked like comics?” That question sounds wonderfully unreasonable. And yet it was built, shipped, localized into 24 languages, and bundled with Windows 98. This really resonated with me. Too much development work today feels like colouring in predefined boxes. Love to see some software that thought way out of the box and got institutional support.

Modems were slow and a monthly cost that tied up people’s phone lines. This was another way to get people online. It wasn’t a given thing that we think of nowadays.

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#152

Post by braedon-dev »

NDlurker wrote: post #78
outintospace wrote: post #64

Hi, I'm Robert Standefer, the guy who made this happen, with lots of support. I'm excited to see the enthusiasm about Comic Chat being open sourced. How this came to happen is a very interesting story that spans a six-year period with success that hinged upon being in the right place at the right time, literally. I want to point out that, while I (along with Scott Hanselman) made the Comic Chat open source release ha…

Thank you! My only experience with Comic Chat is reading Jerk City comics. Always thought it was a neat concept but never used it

[dead]

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#153

Post by krige »

lysace wrote: post #150
MBCook wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it every time some company people hate does anything good, no matter how trivial, people have to trash it? Someone at MS made a fun IRC client. Thats it. It’s a WILDLY different world than 30 years ago and MS is a different company. They released old code for those interested. Celebrate it.

First of all: I wrote that I welcome the open sourcing of this code. It was literally the first sentence. I wrote it specifically for reactions like that. They embraced the Internet; in this case IRC. This followed Bill Gates' well-publicised memo "The Internet Tidal Wave" a year earlier ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_08_internet... ). It didn't happen because "someone at MS made a fun IRC client"…

So where's the extinguish? You can't stop proving your point halfway through unless you're implying you did not actually have a point.

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#154

Post by lysace »

krige wrote: post #153
lysace wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all: I wrote that I welcome the open sourcing of this code. It was literally the first sentence. I wrote it specifically for reactions like that. They embraced the Internet; in this case IRC. This followed Bill Gates' well-publicised memo "The Internet Tidal Wave" a year earlier ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/18_06_08_internet... ). It didn't happen because "someone at MS made a fun IRC client"…

So where's the extinguish? You can't stop proving your point halfway through unless you're implying you did not actually have a point.

It probably eventually wasn't deemed important enough for that phase. In 1999 when Comic Chat ended they pivoted to their completely proprietary MSN Messenger service instead, with a stronger focus on individual-to-individual. This came after ICQ (1996) and AIM (1997).

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#155

Post by krige »

lysace wrote: post #154
krige wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So where's the extinguish? You can't stop proving your point halfway through unless you're implying you did not actually have a point.

It probably eventually wasn't deemed important enough for that phase. In 1999 when Comic Chat ended they pivoted to their completely proprietary MSN Messenger service instead, with a stronger focus on individual-to-individual. This came after ICQ (1996) and AIM (1997).

Apples and oranges.

MSN was aimed at, well AIM, to the point where AIM used protocol flaws to block MSN clients. And it doesn't track that they'd just abandon IRC considering it was a period of absolutely massive growth for the protocol. It's more likely there was no intent to EEE IRC.

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#156

Post by joshu »

amiga386 wrote: post #102
NDlurker wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you! My only experience with Comic Chat is reading Jerk City comics. Always thought it was a neat concept but never used it

T DEUCE ME TOO HUGALUGAHGLGHLAHALHGGGGG https://archive.org/details/big-book-of-jerkcity/

HLAGHAGHLAGHLAGH

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#157

Post by droidrungrowth »

NDlurker wrote: post #78
outintospace wrote: post #64

Hi, I'm Robert Standefer, the guy who made this happen, with lots of support. I'm excited to see the enthusiasm about Comic Chat being open sourced. How this came to happen is a very interesting story that spans a six-year period with success that hinged upon being in the right place at the right time, literally. I want to point out that, while I (along with Scott Hanselman) made the Comic Chat open source release ha…

Thank you! My only experience with Comic Chat is reading Jerk City comics. Always thought it was a neat concept but never used it

[dead]

Re: Microsoft Comic Chat is now open source

#158

Post by moontear »

smokel wrote: post #96

There's an interesting easter egg in semantic.cpp, line 77: if (CheckWord(words, "OXio")) { Apparently, if your text contains the word "OXio", it triggers the following riddle: What's round on the ends and hi in the middle?

Back when eastereggs were semi-allowed in MS software. Shame it is being discouraged or disallowed.

Totally understand it from a security and maintenance perspective, but things were more fun back then.

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