IBM WebExplorer
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IBM WebExplorer was an early web browser designed at IBM facilities in the Research Triangle Park for OS/2.
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[edit] Name
Not to be confused with IBM Web Browser, a later program based on Mozilla, or with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
[edit] History
Presented in 1994 with OS/2 Warp (v3), it was hailed as the best browser by Internet Magazine in their November issue[citation needed] and leveraged its position as the only native browser in OS/2 at that time. Almost immediately after the introduction of OS/2 Warp version 3, IBM dismantled the development team and that relegated the WebExplorer to the annals of history. IBM WebExplorer, at that time, was the browser application to beat. OS/2 Warp 4 (1996) included it, but also included a link to download an OS/2 version of Netscape Navigator 2.02, which was late for shipping on CD. IBM had already planned the substitution of WebExplorer.
[edit] Features
- Support for HTML 3.0 (with tables).
- Usenet reader.
- Some of its parts were scriptable with Rexx. Some external companies used this capability to offer an enhanced browser with IBM's rendering engine.
- A page could define what the animated throbber should look like. It was implemented through a non-standard <frame> HTML tag. OS/2 users created several animations. The latter introduction of Web frames leads WebExplorer to confusion on modern pages.
- A presentation mode without visible menu bars.
- A menu option Links collecting all the links in the page. It was used by IBM VoiceType for voice navigation.
- Java applets.
[edit] Shortcomings
- No web frames.
- No redirections.
- No virtual hosts.
- No HTTPS.
- No plugins.
- No JavaScript.
- No PNGs.
- No progressive JPEGs.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The official page at IBM (version from 1999 at the Internet Archive).
- Last public version (1.1h) as a ZIP file.
- The IBM OS/2 WebExplorer
- IBM WebExplorer is mentioned in DOJ vs Microsoft.
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