17 Sep
2007
17 Sep
'07
9:12 p.m.
On 17/09/2007, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Golan Klinger wrote:
It actually got me wondering when apps started really pushing (or forcing)
functionality on users outside of their core reason for existing (such as a
web browser trying to be an email client, or an email client trying to be a
usenet client etc.)
I suspect that aspect *is* on topic :-) Netscape circa mid-90's is one of the
first culprits I can think of, but doubtless there were others long before
then? (Note I'm not talking about small bundled utility apps or functionality
which is related to the central purpose of an application - more the cases
where something that was recognised as doing one job suddenly branched out and
started offering something completely different)
How about that editor (or rater, originally a set of macros for an
editor) that implements a LISP interpreter, which can be an e-mail
client, news reader, ELIZA, ftp client, play tetris, be an IDE, etc,
etc...
Somewhat older that Netscape. Caused more flamewars, too. (Hope I'm
not starting one here!!!)
Joe.