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One thing the article doesn't talk about is RAM prices in 1997. The computer used by the author has 56 MB. But before the great RAM price crash, most users were
by ekidd 3y ago
One thing the article doesn't talk about is RAM prices in 1997. The computer used by the author has 56 MB. But before the great RAM price crash, most users were lucky to have 16 MB, and too many still had 8 MB. Most of that was being used by Netscape. The gorgeous Apple Dylan IDE also required 24MB to run well, and most developer machines couldn't handle it.
I remember those numbers, because I worked for a company that was trying to ship a browser plugin that would have required 24MB itself. Our project plan was totally infeasible.
I think a lot of ambitious projects died around 1997, because RAM prices stubbornly refused to drop.
The "select versus activate" distinction mentioned in the article also made for an absolutely miserable user experience. It's the only thing I remember about OpenDoc, trying to get components to activate.
Developers spent those years learning HTML and JavaScript and how to run a Linux server. The internet was obviously the main show, and weird semi-proprietary document formats were the last thing anyone cared about.
- another2another 3y ago>The gorgeous Apple Dylan IDE also required 24MB to run well I had no idea there was even such a thing, and can't even find any screenshots online (I'm sure there will be somewhere). Nice bit if history here though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Dylan_programming_language https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Dylan_programmi...
- dinkblam 3y agohonorable mention should also go to SK8, just to keep memory of it alive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SK8_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SK8_(programming_language) the interface was unusual (definitely violating Apple's own HIG) and "futuristic": https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2625-apple-sk8 https://www.macintoshrepository.org/2625-apple-sk8 as it was hard to obtain free IDEs on the Mac back then, this was my first introduction to programming in the mid 90s.
- mananaysiempre 3y agoMany screenshots with explanations: https://opendylan.org/history/apple-dylan/screenshots/index.html https://opendylan.org/history/apple-dylan/screenshots/index.... and linked pages. Release CD-ROM with a few more screenshots: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1358-apple-dylan-technology-release https://www.macintoshrepository.org/1358-apple-dylan-technol....
- follower 3y agoAt least some of the Dylan content of the second link (and maybe other stuff, I didn't look too closely) also appears to be available more directly here: * https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/apple/ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Development_Platforms/Dylan_Related/ https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/apple/ftp.apple.com/deve... A description of at least some of the included content is available here: * https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/apple/ftp.apple.com/developer/Tool_Chest/Development_Platforms/Dylan_Related/Dylan_Related.txt https://ftpmirror.your.org/pub/misc/apple/ftp.apple.com/deve... (Discovered these Dylan-related items while I was looking for the CyberDog/OpenDoc items that I listed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37905359 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37905359)