25 years ago, one of the most amazing communities of people came together to create a vibrant, thriving developer culture around the Macintosh and the Internet. There were all sorts of characters involved, who created some awesome Internet technologies that made the Mac one of the coolest platforms to develop for.
Over the years, Apple supplanted many of those technologies with additions to Mac OS X, but those amazing people are still out there, doing their thing. MacHTTP-js was created for many reasons, but the first and foremost was as a "Thank You" and homage to the members of that original community of Mac Internet developers. You all know who you are, but here are some special thanks to people who have been instrumental in the long life of MacHTTP and the launch of its newest incarnation, MacHTTP-js.
Dave is responsible for producing untold innovations for the Internet, but the one that has had the most profound influence on what MacHTTP-js is (on the inside) was his Frontier product. It was the first "runtime" environment to combine a rich scripting environment with an object database. When it first met the "DataPig" and was able to talk to the Internet, it was a trifecta of scripting, database, and networking. As a long time friend and provocateur, Dave deserves great thanks for sharing his vision along the way.
Carl was MacHTTP's "Number One Fan" and is singularly responsible for getting Apple to believe that the Internet and Personal Internet Publishing were things that Mac users needed to do first and do better than any other platform. He was instrumental in creating many of the early Mac Internet conferences and is still a "believer"!
Naomi has always been the "PR" for MacHTTP. She's always made sure it got the media attention it deserved and has been a good friend and business compatriot for the duration. She's the driving force behind the public launch of MacHTTP-js and it wouldn't be out in the wild if not for her efforts.
Rich has set the bar for long-lived Mac software with BBEdit. I'm proud to have been inspired by his skills at keeping a product active in the market for such a "distinguished" period of time. That, plus BBEdit has been the editor of choice for 100% of MacHTTP-js's development.
Eric was the "muscle" behind WebSTAR and was a product manager without equal in getting it into the Mac marketplace. He's since gone on to bigger and better things at Apple, but he's alway willing to lend a hand or make an intro whenever he could.
Gavin has the distinction of being one of the longest MacHTTP users and has the dubious honor of finding one of MacHTTP-js's most insidious bugs. Thanks for being a great help and a great user!
If not for David Thompson's vision, MacHTTP would never have begat WebSTAR. David was instrumental in convincing everyone that turning MacHTTP into a commercial product was actually a good idea. His creativity lingers in the "rocket" hidden in the MacHTTP-js icon.
Saul is an artist, graphic designer, programmer, technologist, and foodie without comparison. As everyone knows, the most important decision facing a new software product is the icon. Saul took the legacy MacHTTP icon and turned out a 21st Century rendition that kept the spirit of the original and added a Jetsons-like flair.