MacWeb
{{Infobox Software
| name = MacWeb
| logo = MacWeb-software-icon.png
| logo_alt = MacWeb software icon
| screenshot =
| caption =
| developer = TradeWave
| released = {{start date and age|1994|5|31}}
| latest_release_version = 2.0
| latest_release_date = {{start date and age|1996}}
| operating_system = Classic Mac OS
| genre = Web Browser
| license = Freeware
| website = N/A
}}
MacWeb is an early, now discontinued classic Mac OS-only web browser for 68k and PowerPC Apple Macintosh computers, developed by TradeWave (formerly EINet) between 1994 and 1996.{{cite book|last1=December|first1=John|year=1994|last2=Randall|first2=Neil|page=234ff|title=World Wide Web Unleashed|publisher=Sams Publishing |isbn=0-672-30617-4}}
MacWeb's major attraction was its ability to run well on low-end hardware footprints as well as fast page display. This compactness led to MacWeb's inclusion on many "Internet starter kit" floppy disks and CD-ROMs that were popular at the time. TradeWave also developed a similar Microsoft Windows browser named WinWeb. However, they were eclipsed by more full-featured competitors such as Netscape Navigator, and development was eventually abandoned.
Versions
The first public release was 0.98-alpha on May 31, 1994, and the final official release was version 2.0 in 1996. An unofficial patch "2.0c" was released by Antoine Hébert in 1998 to correct a problem on old machines not supporting color QuickDraw.
Although one author in 1995 called MacWeb the second web browser released for the Macintosh,{{cite book |title=Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks: A Macintosh-Based World Wide Web Starter Kit Featuring MacHTTP and Other Tools |version=version 1.0h |date=1995-09-26 |last=Morgan |first=Eric Lease |chapter-url=http://infomotions.com/musings/tricks/manuscript/0400-0003.html |chapter=Chapter 3: Macintosh-based WWW Browsers |access-date=2017-09-05}} this is not quite true. The text-only MacWWW browser became available in 1992, with the graphical Mosaic released for the Mac the next year.
Features
MacWeb was a basic browser that contained features common to most browsers such as:
- support for HTML forms
- bookmarks with import tool for Mosaic's bookmarks
- a HTML viewer
MacWeb pioneered the "click and hold" gesture to display a popup contextual menu. This mouse gesture was commonly used on the Macintosh before the prevalence of two-button mice on the Mac platform.{{cite web |url=http://www.ccadams.org/se/macweb2.html |title=MacWeb 1.x hints and tips |last=Adams |first=Chris |access-date=2017-09-05}} MacWeb's preferences dialog allowed users to customize display styles on a per-tag basis similar to Cascading style sheets{{cite book |chapter-url=https://tidbits.com/iskm/iskm3html/pt4/ch25/ch25a.html |chapter=Chapter 25: World Wide Web |title=Internet Starter Kit for the Macintosh |edition=3rd |last=Engst |first=Adam C |author-link=Adam C. Engst |publisher=Hayden Books |year=1995 |isbn=9781568301976 |access-date=2017-09-05 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/mac_Internet_Starter_Kit_for_Macintosh_3rd_edition_1995 }}
System requirements
MacWeb has the following system requirements:
- Operating system: Classic Mac OS
- RAM: less than 700 KB RAM
- HDD: 680 KB
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- {{cite book|last1=December|first1=John|year=1994|last2=Randall|first2=Neil|page=234ff|title=World Wide Web Unleashed|publisher=Sams Publishing|isbn=0-672-30617-4}}
External links
- [http://browsers.evolt.org/browsers/archive/macweb MacWeb archive] on evolt.org
{{Early web browsers}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macweb}}
Category:Classic Mac OS-only web browsers
Category:Discontinued web browsers
{{web-software-stub}}