"In conclusion, people are finally beginning to understand the hard way: Web Browsers really make poor client application runtimes for all but the most basic of things. ActiveX is a security nightmare and counter to making cross-platform applications. The web is a constantly changing and evolving standard separate from Microsoft or any specific operating system, as such implementing an application for just one specif…
I work in defense and our stuff only runs with Internet explorer and Java applets. Requirements were written in the early 2000s and the product is still not ready to ship.
"In conclusion, people are finally beginning to understand the hard way: Web Browsers really make poor client application runtimes for all but the most basic of things. ActiveX is a security nightmare and counter to making cross-platform applications. The web is a constantly changing and evolving standard separate from Microsoft or any specific operating system, as such implementing an application for just one specif…
In fairness, "DHTML" / programmatic manipulation of the DOM was just invented in 1996 and eventually ended up being the envisioned successful client application runtime implemented across browser versions and runtimes. Now, of course with the Chromium hegemony we have an old-is-new-again set of problems on the web, but I do think that for a time, people _did_ listen to this advice and stopped writing applications for…
It’s worth remembering that Flash was in fact extremely successful. I think we’d still be using it today if not for some combination of (1) Steve Jobs and (2) Adobe mismanagement.
People say Flash was bloated but try running Slack on 2008-era hardware and let me know how it goes. And there’s no reason Flash couldn’t have been adapted to use responsive breakpoints and such for mobile friendliness.
Yes! And here's a 1999 Wayback Machine archive of the IE for Unix site on microsoft.com: http://web.archive.org/web/19991128115223/http://www.microso... "Internet Explorer 5 for UNIX offers the most complete support of Internet standards and technologies, including XML and DHTML"
Wow, I didn't know the term Intellisense is that old. Thought that was a Jetbrains thing.
If you want some IE nostalgia, here's a visual history of IE starting in 1995 (v1.0): https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/internet-explorer Factoid: There were versions of IE for both Mac and Solaris.
IE5 for Mac was very great! The first version to implement tabs if I am not mistaken.
"In conclusion, people are finally beginning to understand the hard way: Web Browsers really make poor client application runtimes for all but the most basic of things. ActiveX is a security nightmare and counter to making cross-platform applications. The web is a constantly changing and evolving standard separate from Microsoft or any specific operating system, as such implementing an application for just one specif…
In fairness, "DHTML" / programmatic manipulation of the DOM was just invented in 1996 and eventually ended up being the envisioned successful client application runtime implemented across browser versions and runtimes. Now, of course with the Chromium hegemony we have an old-is-new-again set of problems on the web, but I do think that for a time, people _did_ listen to this advice and stopped writing applications for…
There’s also WASM that might pick up where Flash/Flex/Java left off.
If you want some IE nostalgia, here's a visual history of IE starting in 1995 (v1.0): https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/internet-explorer Factoid: There were versions of IE for both Mac and Solaris.
But nobody chose the alternatives. Java or single operating system applications were the alternative. Where would we be today if you couldn't swap between Mac and Windows laptops -- or worse, had to have both -- because you depended on applications that had no common operating system? The reason we can use linux as a desktop is because of web applications. Now, it's possible that we could have ended up with Web Start…
It's interesting to me you're getting downvoted which signifies that people don't think you're adding to the conversation Is this a form of denialism by hardcore "I-Hate-Javascript"ers? I would like to add that I absolutely hate the subset of modern websites that choose to be slow, but I think the parent is completely right. If we keep making it hard to use useful applications across platforms, then we're going to co…
>which signifies that people don't think you're adding to the conversation //
Point of fact: pg, the founder of HN endorsed downvoting for disagreement much to my chagrin.
If you want some IE nostalgia, here's a visual history of IE starting in 1995 (v1.0): https://www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/internet-explorer Factoid: There were versions of IE for both Mac and Solaris.
IE5 for Mac was very great! The first version to implement tabs if I am not mistaken.
I always thought tabs were an Opera invention, or maybe one of those IE shells like Maxthon or Neoplanet? IE5:mac was a fantastic browser though and was widely regarded as having the best CSS1 conformance of its time, as well as some cool features like an eBay auction tracker sidebar that seem quaint today but were very useful to me at the time: https://alistapart.com/article/ie5mac/
On the flip side, the only time I can remember hearing an entire crowd boo Stebe Jovs was when he announced that IE 4.5 would ship as the default browser in Mac OS 8: https://youtu.be/WxOp5mBY9IY?t=142
But nobody chose the alternatives. Java or single operating system applications were the alternative. Where would we be today if you couldn't swap between Mac and Windows laptops -- or worse, had to have both -- because you depended on applications that had no common operating system? The reason we can use linux as a desktop is because of web applications. Now, it's possible that we could have ended up with Web Start…
I think the answer would have been for Java desktop apps to take off. I think if we had had a more diverse desktop landscape in the late 90s / early 2000s Java desktop apps would have won. As it was that was peak Windows and Java desktop apps were never given the time they needed to mature since the cross platform pitch was at its least compelling. The browser pretty much won because it was able to unseat the Windows…
Web apps won because they didn’t need to be installed on the device. They were vastly inferior to desktop apps built with any framework (even java), but they were “good enough” and IT departments liked them because they were easy to deploy. Anything that required a local install never stood a chance. That advantage for web apps is still there, which is the thing that keeps web app dominance in place.