Alan Kay on “Should web browsers have stuck to being document viewers?” and a discussion of Smalltalk, HyperCard, NeWS, and HyperLook
Alan Kay Wrote:
Actually quite the opposite, if “document” means an imitation of old static text media (and later including pictures, and audio and video recordings).
It was being willing to settle for an overly simple text format and formatting scheme — “for convenience” — that started the web media architecture off in entirely the wrong direction (including the too simple reference scheme c.f. Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson). Circa early 90s, it had the look and feel of an atavistic hack. I expected that Netscape would fix this rather than just try to dominate what was there (I expected a better architecture both for “thinking about media in the age of computing” and also something not like “an app” but more like an operating system to deal with the actual systems requirements, demands, and scalings of the world-wide Internet-in-progress).
Alan Kay on web browsers, document viewers, Smalltalk, NeWS and HyperCard (2021) (donhopkins.medium.com)
234 points by gjvc on Jan 8, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 272 comments
https://donhopkins.medium.com/alan-kay-on-should-web-browser...
Alan Kay on “Should web browsers have stuck to being document viewers?” and a discussion of Smalltalk, HyperCard, NeWS, and HyperLook
Alan Kay Wrote: Actually quite the opposite, if “document” means an imitation of old static text media (and later including pictures, and audio and video recordings).
It was being willing to settle for an overly simple text format and formatting scheme — “for convenience” — that started the web media architecture off in entirely the wrong direction (including the too simple reference scheme c.f. Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson). Circa early 90s, it had the look and feel of an atavistic hack. I expected that Netscape would fix this rather than just try to dominate what was there (I expected a better architecture both for “thinking about media in the age of computing” and also something not like “an app” but more like an operating system to deal with the actual systems requirements, demands, and scalings of the world-wide Internet-in-progress).
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