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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Remember the time before we had HTML5 or worse, Flash?
Flash is bad enough. But what about Shockwave? Java? Or Java 1.4 (that was a big update IIRC). A whole slew of different ActiveX plugins to download/install/debug each time you wanted to visit a different webpage?
Javascript back then was so primitive you couldn't even do XMLHttpRequests, so that necessitated the use of rich plugins to deliver a better browsing experience. But it was incredibly non-standard and non-consolidated.
First Gmail and then Google Maps were amazing. In a world where webpages looked like ass and any interesting technology required a plugin, those two apps were mind-blowing.
When someone in my lab told me about Gmail, I thought it would be a janky mess. How could a web page be good? But it was. It was great. It felt almost like a native app.
Then Google Maps came around. After MapQuest, I was expecting goofy tiles and weird hot spots to click on. Nope. They hit it out of the park again. Zooming in and out was... fluid.
Those were good days.
XMLHttpRequest had to be invented before GMail could exist.
But yeah, Gmail was the first online webapp that I personally used that extensively used XMLHttpRequest (aka: Javascript's function for "automatically fetch more data from the server")
Before that point, you wore out your F5 key waiting for new emails. Gmail comes out and "magic", the new data just arrives because Javascript is hitting the F5 key in the background for you.
I don't miss Java. Fuck Java.
You'll pry "Slime Volleyball" away from my cold, dead, fingers. Also Minecraft, which I believe was as Java applet first. Also Robocode.
So many good Java things in that old web...
It was indeed! I remember playing it that way.
Realplayer and qt where always a pain to get installed correctly
You're making me remember codecs.
Remember when DivX finally unified us upon MPEG2 and that codec just worked? Forget Youtube videos, I'm talking just making videos in general usable on the internet.
Kids these days don't even know what they've missed. Non-standard video formats. Ugggh. With everyone smoothly using mp4 or AV1 these days, life is so much better.
I remembered for audio projects, the .WMA format was the bane of everyone's existence.
Today, Flash can be played using a browser extension, written in Rust, that translates the Flash code into WebAssembly (Wasm). This can also be embedded in a web site; this is used by e.g. https://homestarrunner.com to play old toons & games.
https://ruffle.rs/
The system is down.
Checkin' my email with the lightswitch rave,
Checkin' my email, make your moms behave.
I remember when XMLHttp first came out, such a game changer.