NeXTSTEP - Influence

Influence

The first web browser, WorldWideWeb, was developed on the Nextstep platform.

"1990 CERN: A Joint proposal for a hypertext system is presented to the management. Mike Sendall buys a NeXT cube for evaluation, and gives it to Tim Berners-Lee. Tim's prototype implementation on NeXTStep is made in the space of a few months, thanks to the qualities of the NeXTStep software development system. This prototype offers WYSIWYG browsing/authoring! Current Web browsers used in "surfing the Internet" are mere passive windows, depriving the user of the possibility to contribute. During some sessions in the CERN cafeteria, Tim and I try to find a catching name for the system. I was determined that the name should not yet again be taken from Greek mythology. Tim proposes "World-Wide Web". I like this very much, except that it is difficult to pronounce in French..." by Robert Cailliau, 2 November 1995.

Some features and keyboard shortcuts now commonly found in web browsers can be traced to Nextstep conventions. The basic layout options of HTML 1.0 and 2.0 are attributable to those features available in NeXT's Text class.

The games Doom, its level (WAD) editor, and Quake with its respective level editor were all developed by id Software on NeXT machines.

Also Altsys Virtuoso, version 2 of which was ported to Mac OS and Windows to become Macromedia FreeHand version 4, the modern "Notebook" interface for Mathematica, and the advanced spreadsheet Lotus Improv. The software that controlled MCI's Friends and Family program was developed using Nextstep.

About the time of the 3.2 release, NeXT teamed up with Sun Microsystems to develop OpenStep, a cross-platform object-oriented API standard derived from Nextstep. Implementations of that standard were released for Sun's Solaris, Windows NT, and NeXT's version of the Mach kernel. NeXT's implementation was called OPENSTEP for Mach and its first release (4.0) superseded Nextstep 3.3 on NeXT, Sun and Intel IA-32 systems.

Following an announcement on December 20, 1996, on February 4, 1997, Apple Computer acquired NeXT for $429 million, and used the OPENSTEP for Mach operating system as the basis for OS X.

A free software implementation of the OpenStep standard, GNUstep, also exists.

The anime series Serial Experiments Lain was influenced by NextStep and Mac OS, references may be found throughout the show and its affiliated media. Most notably the slogan for the Lain PSX Game "Close the world, Open the NeXT".

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Famous quotes containing the word influence:

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    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

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