Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Almost Notes

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:9/25/2000; 9:04:09 AM
Topic:Almost Notes
Msg #:21689 (In response to 21688)
Prev/Next:21688 / 21690

Brad, hopefully Gordon and Andrew (Singer, not Layman) won't mind if I tell this story.

We fully planned to have MORE do these kinds of things back in the 80s. That's why we merged with THINK Technologies, not for the languages, but for their LAN-based email program, InBox.

But Symantec was a madhouse. We fought over who had the right to deliver this vision. In the end I withdrew, and let Andrew have his way. I guess there was a problem, it didn't ship.

Another reason it didn't happen is that Apple's networking APIs were horrendous. Remember, the Mac was the first computer to have networking built-in. We tried so many ways to integrate networking into our codebase, we had plenty of experience from LBBS, we knew what user experience we wanted to create.

Had Apple's APIs been cleaner or better documented, or provided better sample source, the vision that RU is now delivering would have been part of Macintosh culture, probably would have been in MORE 2 or 3.

The great thing about the Internet is that HTTP is a joy to work with, so simple, so low-tech, so well-supported.




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