5 ms·

Matt's Script Archive (1995)

158 points by huang_chung 2y ago

dang 2y ago
Related. Others? Matt's Script Archive, Inc.: Free Perl CGI Scripts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33305258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33305258 - Oct 2022 (2 comments) Matt's Script Archive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789342 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789342 - June 2022 (1 comment) Matt's Script Archive. Offering free CGI scripts to the web community since 1995 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30391802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30391802 - Feb 2022 (1 comment)
xnx 2y ago
Wow. Amazing that this page exists virtually unchanged from 30 years ago. We've definitely lost some part of the charm of the early web when it was common to get email, web space, FTP, and even shell access from your ISP.
- mattl 2y ago
  https://sdf.org https://sdf.org if you want some of that back
morganf 2y ago
OMG. Just the name brings back memories.
Tijdreiziger 2y ago
Last updated in (2009), it seems.
ekanes 2y ago
Gosh. Seeing that is kind of more ... emotional than I'd have expected. Gonna print a screenshot of it for the memories folder. It was just such a different time. Can't imagine what later generations would think was the point of things like a web counter, but golly that was so cool back in the day. :) "Display a text count of visitors to your web pages. Includes: zero padding, file locking, linking the count, displaying begin date and counting multiple pages."
- susam 2y ago
  Exactly! These old websites from the 90s that are still alive carry such a powerful dose of nostalgia. I wrote and published my first public website on GeoCities. Sadly, that's lose to time. The second one I wrote was published on 20m.com which offered 20 MB of free hosting space and a custom subdomain. That was more than 20 years ago. Incredibly 20m.com and that silly website of mine are still online: <http://encoders.20m.com/ http://encoders.20m.com/>! If you scroll down, you'll find the obligatory visitor count on the sidebar. That's still running too! You can't see in the published HTML but that visitor counter is generated by an ISML tag. <isml type="counter"> It's fascinating how some forgotten corners of the web are still quietly running, long after the rest of the Internet has moved on.
  - Sophira 2y ago
    > These old websites from the 90s that are still alive carry such a powerful dose of nostalgia. There's a subreddit dedicated to these kinds of sites: https://reddit.com/r/forgottenwebsites/ https://reddit.com/r/forgottenwebsites/
    - acuozzo 2y ago
      Thank you for this! I just joined/subscribed to it.
McGlockenshire 2y ago
Like many, I got my start with perl by finding myself having to customize a WWWBoard. The site owner then switched to a new perl based forum that used flat linear threads, the Ultimate Bulletin Board. (Which itself is based on code in Selena Sol's "Instant CGI/Perl"!) So, I learned that too. The guy that made it had a forum for it where other people were sharing their changes to the code, mind you this was a commercial product. The company ended up hiring a handful of us from that forum. I ended up doing the coding on the perl UBB for five years, launching my career. So, thanks Matt. Your code may not have aged well, but it touched millions and millions of people.
ourcat 2y ago
Ahhh, WWWBoard. Those were the days!
threeio 2y ago
I spent so much time hacking on scripts from here in the those early internet days... ahh memories.
notadev 2y ago
WWWBoard is such a nostalgia hit. My local music venue's forum was where my early internet persona originated. Sometimes I nostalgic and use Wayback machine to see what all my fellow teenagers were talking about 25 years ago.
- krapp 2y ago
  You can still find some of these boards online. It's like seeing a thylacene crossing the street.
- mattwright 2y ago
  Fun fact: WWWBoard had a brief cameo in the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" -- their official community site used the script for many years after most had moved on.
  - huang_chung 2y ago
    Here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2NHTRgH3G0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2NHTRgH3G0 (Caution very NSFW language)
mattwright 2y ago
30 years since I posted that first script back in high school! Thanks for all the love (and some hate) since then. :) Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try to answer.
- mkovach 2y ago
  As somebody in the ISP/webhosting business back then, I spend quite a bit of time helping people set these up. Such a blast from the past. Glad to see it is still hanging around!
- rahimnathwani 2y ago
  I'm amazed that you created an HN account in 2014 but that this is your first comment. How did you resist the temptation to comment for so many years?
  - sejje 2y ago
    I asked dang once and he said like 1% of visitors comment.
    - rahimnathwani 2y ago
      I had assumed that the majority of accounts are created when the owner first wants to write a comment (or post a submission). I wonder whether dang meant 1% of registered visitors, or 1% of visitors.
      - andyferris 2y ago
        I remember originally registering in order to upvote, not to comment or submit. I'm not sure how common that is but it is a much less scary way to begin to contribute.
        sejje 2y ago
        You can't vote until you have 500 karma
waveforms 2y ago
wow, thanks Matt. You and Lincoln Stein (Bioperl founder if I remember correctly) got me started with my first website.
kev009 2y ago
Programmatically generating web content felt so rad in the 1990s. It's funny to me now because with deeper historical knowledge it's not a lot different than what many block-mode green screen systems were doing for a long time before that. Of course it grew up into something more, but the early web was not much different than that with fonts and image embeds and relying on the underlying transport and naming system to make it easy to span.
locusofself 2y ago
oh wow. This is one of those things that I remember, but I never would have thought of it specifically. Formmail.pl !
kirse 2y ago
Another legendary throwback from that era: https://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/ https://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/
cutler 2y ago
Much as I loved Perl when I started with it back in 2000 CGI.pm was pretty hacky with new vulns popping up every week. It's creator, Lincoln Stein was, however, one of the stable of Perl Jedi and he did a sterling job of keeping it patched with the help, if I remember, of Randall Schwartz. Them were th' days. CGI::Application was an improvement and my mainstay until the arrival of PSGI and Plack which paved the way for frameworks such as Dancer and Mojolicious.
zekenie 2y ago
CGI bin babbbyyyyyy
bergie 2y ago
Oh wow. That brings back memories. I think every site I built back then at least used that FormMail script. Then we started transitioning to Lisp, and somehow ended up with PHP. In any case, I don't think I'd be here without your help, Matt. Big, big thanks!
89vision 2y ago
What a throwback! I discovered these as a kid in the early days of the web. I remember the perl being a little too obtuse to grok as a preteen, but I figured out where I could change things at certain parts of the code to make things look a little differently. Those were magical years that inspired me to get into coding and problem solving as an adult. Thanks Matt.
marban 2y ago
I wonder how many users still pay for formmail.com
- mattwright 2y ago
  About 1,000 -- usage peaked in 2008. I never really added additional features or did the work that would have kept it relevant. It's mostly in maintenance mode and self-serve at this point.
  - aaronbaugher 2y ago
    That's great; it's always good to hear that someone who contributed so much value was able to get paid something for it. In 1995-ish, I had just started working at a new ISP. My boss dropped Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days on my desk and said, "You need to learn to make guestbooks and things for our users." Your scripts were a big help in getting me up to speed.
jimjag 2y ago
It cannot be stressed enough how _vital_ these scripts were to making the WWW an actual functional technical resource; These scripts were a key, if not the key, in growing the actual interactive web, showing the potential of CGI, and in guiding the evolution of web2.0 and beyond. Its value and place in history can't be overstated.

158 points by huang_chung 2y ago

dang 2y ago

Related. Others? Matt's Script Archive, Inc.: Free Perl CGI Scripts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33305258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33305258 - Oct 2022 (2 comments) Matt's Script Archive - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789342 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31789342 - June 2022 (1 comment) Matt's Script Archive. Offering free CGI scripts to the web community since 1995 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30391802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30391802 - Feb 2022 (1 comment)

xnx 2y ago

Wow. Amazing that this page exists virtually unchanged from 30 years ago. We've definitely lost some part of the charm of the early web when it was common to get email, web space, FTP, and even shell access from your ISP.

mattl 2y ago
https://sdf.org https://sdf.org if you want some of that back

morganf 2y ago

OMG. Just the name brings back memories.

Tijdreiziger 2y ago

Last updated in (2009), it seems.

ekanes 2y ago

Gosh. Seeing that is kind of more ... emotional than I'd have expected. Gonna print a screenshot of it for the memories folder. It was just such a different time. Can't imagine what later generations would think was the point of things like a web counter, but golly that was so cool back in the day. :) "Display a text count of visitors to your web pages. Includes: zero padding, file locking, linking the count, displaying begin date and counting multiple pages."

susam 2y ago
Exactly! These old websites from the 90s that are still alive carry such a powerful dose of nostalgia. I wrote and published my first public website on GeoCities. Sadly, that's lose to time. The second one I wrote was published on 20m.com which offered 20 MB of free hosting space and a custom subdomain. That was more than 20 years ago. Incredibly 20m.com and that silly website of mine are still online: <http://encoders.20m.com/ http://encoders.20m.com/>! If you scroll down, you'll find the obligatory visitor count on the sidebar. That's still running too! You can't see in the published HTML but that visitor counter is generated by an ISML tag. <isml type="counter"> It's fascinating how some forgotten corners of the web are still quietly running, long after the rest of the Internet has moved on.
- Sophira 2y ago
  > These old websites from the 90s that are still alive carry such a powerful dose of nostalgia. There's a subreddit dedicated to these kinds of sites: https://reddit.com/r/forgottenwebsites/ https://reddit.com/r/forgottenwebsites/
  - acuozzo 2y ago
    Thank you for this! I just joined/subscribed to it.

McGlockenshire 2y ago

Like many, I got my start with perl by finding myself having to customize a WWWBoard. The site owner then switched to a new perl based forum that used flat linear threads, the Ultimate Bulletin Board. (Which itself is based on code in Selena Sol's "Instant CGI/Perl"!) So, I learned that too. The guy that made it had a forum for it where other people were sharing their changes to the code, mind you this was a commercial product. The company ended up hiring a handful of us from that forum. I ended up doing the coding on the perl UBB for five years, launching my career. So, thanks Matt. Your code may not have aged well, but it touched millions and millions of people.

ourcat 2y ago

Ahhh, WWWBoard. Those were the days!

threeio 2y ago

I spent so much time hacking on scripts from here in the those early internet days... ahh memories.

notadev 2y ago

WWWBoard is such a nostalgia hit. My local music venue's forum was where my early internet persona originated. Sometimes I nostalgic and use Wayback machine to see what all my fellow teenagers were talking about 25 years ago.

krapp 2y ago
You can still find some of these boards online. It's like seeing a thylacene crossing the street.
mattwright 2y ago
Fun fact: WWWBoard had a brief cameo in the movie "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" -- their official community site used the script for many years after most had moved on.
- huang_chung 2y ago
  Here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2NHTRgH3G0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2NHTRgH3G0 (Caution very NSFW language)

mattwright 2y ago

30 years since I posted that first script back in high school! Thanks for all the love (and some hate) since then. :) Let me know if you have any questions, I'll try to answer.

mkovach 2y ago
As somebody in the ISP/webhosting business back then, I spend quite a bit of time helping people set these up. Such a blast from the past. Glad to see it is still hanging around!
rahimnathwani 2y ago
I'm amazed that you created an HN account in 2014 but that this is your first comment. How did you resist the temptation to comment for so many years?
- sejje 2y ago
  I asked dang once and he said like 1% of visitors comment.
  - rahimnathwani 2y ago
    I had assumed that the majority of accounts are created when the owner first wants to write a comment (or post a submission). I wonder whether dang meant 1% of registered visitors, or 1% of visitors.
    - andyferris 2y ago
      I remember originally registering in order to upvote, not to comment or submit. I'm not sure how common that is but it is a much less scary way to begin to contribute.
      - sejje 2y ago
        You can't vote until you have 500 karma

waveforms 2y ago

wow, thanks Matt. You and Lincoln Stein (Bioperl founder if I remember correctly) got me started with my first website.

kev009 2y ago

Programmatically generating web content felt so rad in the 1990s. It's funny to me now because with deeper historical knowledge it's not a lot different than what many block-mode green screen systems were doing for a long time before that. Of course it grew up into something more, but the early web was not much different than that with fonts and image embeds and relying on the underlying transport and naming system to make it easy to span.

locusofself 2y ago

oh wow. This is one of those things that I remember, but I never would have thought of it specifically. Formmail.pl !

kirse 2y ago

Another legendary throwback from that era: https://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/ https://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/

cutler 2y ago

Much as I loved Perl when I started with it back in 2000 CGI.pm was pretty hacky with new vulns popping up every week. It's creator, Lincoln Stein was, however, one of the stable of Perl Jedi and he did a sterling job of keeping it patched with the help, if I remember, of Randall Schwartz. Them were th' days. CGI::Application was an improvement and my mainstay until the arrival of PSGI and Plack which paved the way for frameworks such as Dancer and Mojolicious.

zekenie 2y ago

CGI bin babbbyyyyyy

bergie 2y ago

Oh wow. That brings back memories. I think every site I built back then at least used that FormMail script. Then we started transitioning to Lisp, and somehow ended up with PHP. In any case, I don't think I'd be here without your help, Matt. Big, big thanks!

89vision 2y ago

What a throwback! I discovered these as a kid in the early days of the web. I remember the perl being a little too obtuse to grok as a preteen, but I figured out where I could change things at certain parts of the code to make things look a little differently. Those were magical years that inspired me to get into coding and problem solving as an adult. Thanks Matt.

marban 2y ago

I wonder how many users still pay for formmail.com

mattwright 2y ago
About 1,000 -- usage peaked in 2008. I never really added additional features or did the work that would have kept it relevant. It's mostly in maintenance mode and self-serve at this point.
- aaronbaugher 2y ago
  That's great; it's always good to hear that someone who contributed so much value was able to get paid something for it. In 1995-ish, I had just started working at a new ISP. My boss dropped Teach Yourself Perl in 21 Days on my desk and said, "You need to learn to make guestbooks and things for our users." Your scripts were a big help in getting me up to speed.

jimjag 2y ago

It cannot be stressed enough how _vital_ these scripts were to making the WWW an actual functional technical resource; These scripts were a key, if not the key, in growing the actual interactive web, showing the potential of CGI, and in guiding the evolution of web2.0 and beyond. Its value and place in history can't be overstated.