Goodbye

by Bryan

16 comments

1 John B. { 02.29.08 at 2:33 pm }

Bryan,

Netscape may be dead but the lineage lives on and grows stronger with SeaMonkey and NVu

2 Bryan { 02.29.08 at 5:28 pm }

Of course, Firefox is a derivative product, but Netscape was my first graphic browser.

3 Steve Bates { 02.29.08 at 6:10 pm }

Navigator lives on in the document object model’s name for the whole-browser object… even in IE. They can’t avoid calling it navigator if they want their JavaScript to be compatible. And you can hardly write an app that doesn’t test its properties, just to see what browser you’re running in. To me, this is Netscape’s ultimate joke on Microsoft. I wonder if Bill Gates feels the same way.

4 Kryten42 { 02.29.08 at 7:43 pm }

I began using the NCSA Mosaic graphical web browser in ’93 (developed by Uni of Illinois) until Andreessen began development of Netscape in ’94 with funds provided by Silicon Graphics. I became an official Netscape Developer in ’95 and did a lot of work in a few areas. I was also one of the first to buy licenses for the Hotdog Editor (developed by an Aus company that used to write accounting software of all things!) LOL It ws a great tool, but since v6 has been taken over by an unscrupulous person and is garbage. A shame.

A shame. I just downloaded Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.6, which is based on Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12. Maybe someone will restart development again somewhere. 🙂

Curiously, even though Mosaic development officially halted in ’97, it can still be downloaded from the NCSA. 🙂

RIP.

5 Kryten42 { 02.29.08 at 7:50 pm }

BYT, the accounting software company that created the Hotdog web page editor, was called Sausage Software! LOL (I was always amused by that)!

I also used another web editor called Coffeecup HTML Editor, which was apparently created by a couple guys that owned a Coffee house in Corpus Christi, Texas! 😀 I remember it was Corpus Christi, because I went to a Catholic school called Corpus Christi! (And the less said about THAT experience, the better!!)

I call that period “The End Of Innovation Period”. *sigh*

Cheers! 😀

6 Bryan { 02.29.08 at 8:43 pm }

Being familiar with Microsoft’s ways, there are a lot of things that won’t work with their software unless you include checks for competitors products. There are definite reasons why they don’t want to release source code that have nothing to do with their “creativity”.

I used Hot Dog for a long time when I was heavy into helping non-profits get on the ‘Net. It worked for me. I tried Coffeecup a couple of times, but didn’t get comfortable with it.

I finally went back to hand coding and reusing my own modules.

7 hipparchia { 02.29.08 at 9:39 pm }

fresh software. warm people. located, apparently, on a street named for the karankawa.

8 Michael { 02.29.08 at 10:42 pm }

What’s wrong with ‘vi’? 🙂

9 Bryan { 02.29.08 at 10:45 pm }

I sometimes think you are Google’s number one user, Hipparchia. 😉

10 hipparchia { 02.29.08 at 11:20 pm }

probably. also, i had to google ‘vi’.

11 Bryan { 02.29.08 at 11:41 pm }

I still code in WordStar non-document mode, and vi requires a DEC box.

12 Steve Bates { 03.01.08 at 2:24 am }

“BYT, the accounting software company that created the Hotdog web page editor, was called Sausage Software! LOL (I was always amused by that)!” – Kryten42

Nothing, but nothing, tops the name of the company that made and marketed the venerable BRIEF programmer’s editor… UnderWare.

13 distributorcap { 03.01.08 at 9:48 am }

ironic it disappears on leap day…….maybe it only disappears every four years

14 Bryan { 03.01.08 at 7:16 pm }

I believe that happens occasionally in folk tales, but is extremely rare among software packages.

15 Kryten42 { 03.01.08 at 9:20 pm }

LOL @ Steve! Hah! I remember that one… God… I haven’t used it for years! Was a good editor though. I’m sure I still have a copy somewhere… in fact, I know I do! 🙂

Thanks for the reminder. 😀

@ Bryan: Coffeecup was a bit strange… I think they kept trying to add features and changed the way it worked too often. Hotdog was always the same (until v6 anyway), new features were added to the Tools or other menu’s usually, but the UI didn’t change a lot (unless you wanted to change it).

I use Bluementals WeBuilder 2007 now, because it’s all-in-one (HTML, CSS, PHP, Perl, XML, JS… etc) and it has a nice UI. 🙂 And is cheap! LOL I use KompoZer for quick and simple work. It’s based on the Mozilla NVU editor that hasn’t been developed for awhile now. KompoZer is called “Nvu’s unnoficial bug-fix release.” It’s on Sourceforge. (Linux, OSX, WinAll). 😉 There’s also a portable version of KompoZer that I keep on my USB key (with the portable FireFox etc)! 🙂

Good ol’ vi! It will never die! …hey… that rhymes! “He was a poet and didn’t knowet!” LOL

16 Bryan { 03.01.08 at 10:49 pm }

I’ve logged a few hours at the keyboard with dBrief, which was optimized for dBase programming, but my real time is spent in debuggers of one flavor or another, which is why I went with WordPress, instead of coding this mess by hand.

Coffeecup wasn’t alone in that particular fault, it was really annoying, They couldn’t figure out that if you’re going to be forced to learn a new user interface, instead of upgrading, you may start looking at other products.

I’ve been through Emac, vi, edlin, and the rest, but I still will go back to WordStar if I have to do major program creation.