Microsoft creates an alternative to HTML

Collaborating with DuPont, the Microsoft CD-ROM division developed a Windows version of its engine for applications as diverse as document management, online help, and a CD-ROM encyclopedia. In a skunkworks project, these developers worked secretly with Multimedia Division developers so that the engine would be usable for more ambitious multimedia applications. Thus they integrated a multimedia markup language, full text search, and extensibility using software objects,[5] all of which are commonplace in modern internet browsing.

In 1992, Microsoft started selling the Bookshelf engine to third-party developers, marketing the product as Microsoft Multimedia Viewer. The idea was that such a tool would help a burgeoning growth of CD-ROM titles that would spur demand for Windows. Although the engine had multimedia capabilities that would not be matched by Web browsers until the late 1990s, Microsoft Viewer did not enjoy commercial success as a standalone product. However, Microsoft continued to use the engine for its Encarta and WinHelp applications, though the multimedia functions are rarely used in Windows help files.

In 1993, the developers who were working on the next generation viewer were moved to the Cairo systems group which was charged with delivering Bill Gates' 'vision' of 'Information at your fingertips'. This advanced browser was a fully componentized application using what are now known as Component Object Model objects, designed for hypermedia browsing across large networks and whose main competitor was thought to be Lotus Notes. Long before Netscape appeared, this team, known as the WEB (web enhanced browser) team had already shipped a network capable hypertext browser capable of doing everything that HTML browsers would not be able to do until the turn of the century. Nearly all technologies of Cairo shipped. The WEB browser was not one of them, though it influenced the design of many other common Microsoft technologies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bookshelf
 

hammo1j

Donor
Wow! Did not know any of that, though did know Markup languages had been around for a long time.

1990 to 2000 was a Golden time for MS.

You had Windows NT networking by then.

DNS was the missing one of the big 3.

So agree MS could have done a proprietary web much earlier, but just didn't see the need that the military and academia did.
 
Wow! Did not know any of that, though did know Markup languages had been around for a long time.

1990 to 2000 was a Golden time for MS.

You had Windows NT networking by then.

DNS was the missing one of the big 3.

So agree MS could have done a proprietary web much earlier, but just didn't see the need that the military and academia did.

MS chose to create their standards for html instead of creating a slightly different format.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Somebody is going to get screwed in this scenario. If Microsoft creating its own alternative leads to the other companies doing the same then the world as a whole is screwed. If Microsoft's proprietary alternative ends up out-competing HTML then the rest of the tech industry is screwed. If the other companies stick with HTML and it beats Microsoft then Microsoft would be screwed if it doesn't see where the wind is blowing and abandons its proprietary standard for HTML.
 
Somebody is going to get screwed in this scenario. If Microsoft creating its own alternative leads to the other companies doing the same then the world as a whole is screwed. If Microsoft's proprietary alternative ends up out-competing HTML then the rest of the tech industry is screwed. If the other companies stick with HTML and it beats Microsoft then Microsoft would be screwed if it doesn't see where the wind is blowing and abandons its proprietary standard for HTML.
I think MS Alternative to HTML would occupy the same space as Flash, since we also had Flash websites as well, however the two standards might merge at one point with MS standard being eaten by HTML.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
I think MS Alternative to HTML would occupy the same space as Flash, since we also had Flash websites as well, however the two standards might merge at one point with MS standard being eaten by HTML.
All-Flash websites were extremely rare. Most websites with consisted of HTML with Flash only being used for videos or interactive content.
 
All-Flash websites were extremely rare. Most websites with consisted of HTML with Flash only being used for videos or interactive content.
As I remember the MS implementation of SGML was much more advanced than early HTML i.e. Encarta..they were not able to do that because of Development Hell and HTML got first and Microsoft instead decided to make their own variation of standards via IE instead.

I think it would merge with HTML later on.
 
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