4 ms·

Humourously enough, when I worked on a team that was writing a graphical web browser for mobile in the late 90's [1], they used a display list for rendering. T

by pacaro 9y ago

Humourously enough, when I worked on a team that was writing a graphical web browser for mobile in the late 90's [1], they used a display list for rendering. The reasoning was somewhat different, web pages were essentially static (we didn't do "DHTML"), if the page rendering process could generate an efficient display list, then the page source could be discarded, and only the display list needed to be held in memory, this rendering could then be pipelined with reading the page over the network, so the entire page was never in memory. Full Disclosure: while I later wrote significant components of this browser (EcmaScript, WmlScript, SSL, WTLS, JPEG, PNG), the work I'm describing was entirely done by other people! [1] - I joined in 97, the first public demo was at GSM World Congress Feb 98

AceJohnny2 9y ago
Opera?
- dom0 9y ago
  Opera is a few years older. MWC 98 + mobile = WAP browser.
  - futurix 9y ago
    That's WAP. Original poster wrote about proper HTTP/HTML/JS browser.
- pacaro 9y ago
  The company was STNC Ltd. The µbrowser was called Hitchhiker. STNC was acquired by Microsoft in July 99. My understanding is that the demo at GSM World in 98 was the first time anyone had demonstrated a graphical browser on a cellphone that implemented common web standards (HTML/HTTP/TCP) rather than using a transcoding gateway (up.link or WAP style — the approach taken by Unwired Planet) The smallest device that we targeted (IIRC) had a screen that was 100x64 pixels, we had 64KiB of RAM at runtime (`unsigned char gHeap[0x10000];`), and our ROM footprint was about 350KiB
  - pavlov 9y ago
    I think back in 2000 I had a phone with your browser, the Benefon Q: https://m.gsmarena.com/benefon_q-42.php https://m.gsmarena.com/benefon_q-42.php It even supported black&white animated GIFs in HTML pages.
    - pacaro 9y ago
      Yup! That was the most limited device we ported to. I wasn’t even aware that it was officially shipped. Benefon made nice devices, the Q was really stylish for its time. If memory served they were mostly sold in Eastern Europe and Russia.
DonHopkins 9y ago
I developed a hypermedia browser called HyperTIES for NeWS that was scriptable in FORTH, and whose formatter could output FORTH code to layout and paginate an article for a particular screen size, which could be saved out in a binary FORTH image that you could restart quickly. The FORTH code then downloaded PostScript code into the NeWS server, where it would be executed in the server to draw the page. It even had an Emacs interface written in Mocklisp! http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/HyperTIES/ties.doc.txt http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/HyperTIES/ties.doc.tx... http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESDiagram.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESDiagram.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESAuthoring.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESAuthoring.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/101 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/101 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/102 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/102 http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.f http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.f http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.c http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.c http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.cps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.cps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.ps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.ps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ties-2.ml http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ties-2.ml
- illuminatidum 9y ago
  HELLO YOUR PERIOD OF SUCESS IS NOW AT YOUR DOORSTEP WITH THE AIDS OF THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY.JOIN NOW AND BE AMONG THE RICHEST PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH.THE DOORS FOR NEW INNITIATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR ONLY THE WISE* WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 ARE YOU A BUSINESS MAN OR WOMAN , POLITICAL , MUSICIAN , STUDENT , THE YOU WANT TO BE RICH , FAMOUS, POWERFUL IN LIFE, JOIN THE ILLUMINATI brotherhood CULT TODAY AND GET INSTANT RICH SUM OF . 1MILLION DOLLARS IN AWEEK , AND A FREE HOME ANYWHERE YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD AND ALSO GET 10, 000 ,000 U . S DOLLARS MONTHLY AS A SALARY. . . BENEFITS GIVEN TO NEW MEMBERS WHO JOIN THE ILLUMINATI . 1. A CASH REWARD OF USD $ 500, 000 USD 2. A NEW SLEEK DREAM CAR VALUED AT $300 ,000 USD 3. A DREAM HOUSE BOUGHT IN THE COUNTRY OF YOUR OWN CHOICE 4. ONE MONTH HOLIDAY ( FULLY PAID) TO YOUR DREAM TOURIST DESTINATION. 5. ONE YEAR GOLF MEMBERSHIP PACKAGE A V . I . P 6. TREATMENT IN ALL AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD 7. A TOTAL LIFESTYLE CHANGE ACCESS TO BOHEMIAN GROVE 8. MONTHLY PAYMENT OF $1, 000 ,000 USD INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT EVERY MONTH. 9. ONE MONTH BOOKED APPOINTMENT WITH TOP 5 WORLD LEADERS AND TOP 5 CELEBRITIES IN THE WORLD . IF YOU ARE INTERESTED MESSAGE THE AGENT NOW AT WHATSAP............+1[770]609-5496 OR EMAIL...................[illuminatidum666@gmail.com]

by pacaro 9y ago

AceJohnny2 9y ago

Opera?

dom0 9y ago
Opera is a few years older. MWC 98 + mobile = WAP browser.
- futurix 9y ago
  That's WAP. Original poster wrote about proper HTTP/HTML/JS browser.
pacaro 9y ago
The company was STNC Ltd. The µbrowser was called Hitchhiker. STNC was acquired by Microsoft in July 99. My understanding is that the demo at GSM World in 98 was the first time anyone had demonstrated a graphical browser on a cellphone that implemented common web standards (HTML/HTTP/TCP) rather than using a transcoding gateway (up.link or WAP style — the approach taken by Unwired Planet) The smallest device that we targeted (IIRC) had a screen that was 100x64 pixels, we had 64KiB of RAM at runtime (`unsigned char gHeap[0x10000];`), and our ROM footprint was about 350KiB
- pavlov 9y ago
  I think back in 2000 I had a phone with your browser, the Benefon Q: https://m.gsmarena.com/benefon_q-42.php https://m.gsmarena.com/benefon_q-42.php It even supported black&white animated GIFs in HTML pages.
  - pacaro 9y ago
    Yup! That was the most limited device we ported to. I wasn’t even aware that it was officially shipped. Benefon made nice devices, the Q was really stylish for its time. If memory served they were mostly sold in Eastern Europe and Russia.

DonHopkins 9y ago

I developed a hypermedia browser called HyperTIES for NeWS that was scriptable in FORTH, and whose formatter could output FORTH code to layout and paginate an article for a particular screen size, which could be saved out in a binary FORTH image that you could restart quickly. The FORTH code then downloaded PostScript code into the NeWS server, where it would be executed in the server to draw the page. It even had an Emacs interface written in Mocklisp! http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/HyperTIES/ties.doc.txt http://www.donhopkins.com/home/archive/HyperTIES/ties.doc.tx... http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESDiagram.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESDiagram.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESAuthoring.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/home/images/HyperTIESAuthoring.jpg http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/101 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/101 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/102 http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/node/102 http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.f http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.f http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.c http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.c http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.cps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.cps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.ps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/fmt.ps http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ties-2.ml http://www.donhopkins.com/home/ties/ties-2.ml

illuminatidum 9y ago
HELLO YOUR PERIOD OF SUCESS IS NOW AT YOUR DOORSTEP WITH THE AIDS OF THE ILLUMINATI SOCIETY.JOIN NOW AND BE AMONG THE RICHEST PEOPLE ON PLANET EARTH.THE DOORS FOR NEW INNITIATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR ONLY THE WISE* WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 WHATSAP...........+1 (770)609-5496 ARE YOU A BUSINESS MAN OR WOMAN , POLITICAL , MUSICIAN , STUDENT , THE YOU WANT TO BE RICH , FAMOUS, POWERFUL IN LIFE, JOIN THE ILLUMINATI brotherhood CULT TODAY AND GET INSTANT RICH SUM OF . 1MILLION DOLLARS IN AWEEK , AND A FREE HOME ANYWHERE YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD AND ALSO GET 10, 000 ,000 U . S DOLLARS MONTHLY AS A SALARY. . . BENEFITS GIVEN TO NEW MEMBERS WHO JOIN THE ILLUMINATI . 1. A CASH REWARD OF USD $ 500, 000 USD 2. A NEW SLEEK DREAM CAR VALUED AT $300 ,000 USD 3. A DREAM HOUSE BOUGHT IN THE COUNTRY OF YOUR OWN CHOICE 4. ONE MONTH HOLIDAY ( FULLY PAID) TO YOUR DREAM TOURIST DESTINATION. 5. ONE YEAR GOLF MEMBERSHIP PACKAGE A V . I . P 6. TREATMENT IN ALL AIRPORTS IN THE WORLD 7. A TOTAL LIFESTYLE CHANGE ACCESS TO BOHEMIAN GROVE 8. MONTHLY PAYMENT OF $1, 000 ,000 USD INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT EVERY MONTH. 9. ONE MONTH BOOKED APPOINTMENT WITH TOP 5 WORLD LEADERS AND TOP 5 CELEBRITIES IN THE WORLD . IF YOU ARE INTERESTED MESSAGE THE AGENT NOW AT WHATSAP............+1[770]609-5496 OR EMAIL...................[illuminatidum666@gmail.com]