Internet Config

Last updated

Internet Config was an Internet preferences manager and API for Mac OS Classic. It was originally developed by Quinn! The Eskimo, Peter N Lewis and Marcus Jager and released in 1994 into the public domain. It was later bundled by Apple Inc.

Internet Config's purpose was to consolidate what was, at the time, an unwieldy number of options and settings related to Internet use that had not yet been integrated into the operating system's own control panel. Some settings were for a systemwide default web browser, home page, default FTP client, systemwide default download folder, and email settings. Internet Config represented an important ease of use advantage for the Macintosh platform on the early Internet.

The software consisted of two pieces, the Internet Config control panel which was actually just a normal application and an 'appe' extension that launched at boot time but did not patch any system traps.

Internet Config enabled the ability for applications to support command-clicking of URLs displayed anywhere onscreen and have the URLs sent to the user selected application. For example, http: URLs would be sent to the selected web browser, ftp: URLs to the selected FTP client, mailto: URLs to the selected Email application, and so on. This functionality was made optional systemwide, as it did have to patch one trap, _TEClick. [1]

Internet Config also provided functionality to ease interoperability of the Macintosh type and creator code system with the file extensions used on the Internet and on other operating systems. API functions were provided to map file extensions to Mac type/creator information, and vice versa.

The public domain licensing of the project and the tight Macintosh Internet community in the late 1990s led to the rapid adoption of the facility, and then to Apple bundling it as part of Mac OS. The Internet Config calls ended up being part of Carbon and Mac OS X, with the header and library files now part of Universal Interfaces and Headers.

Related Research Articles

Cello (web browser) Web browser

Cello is an early, discontinued graphical web browser for Windows 3.1; it was developed by Thomas R. Bruce of the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. It was released as shareware in 1993. While other browsers ran on various Unix machines, Cello was the first web browser for Microsoft Windows, using the winsock system to access the Internet. In addition to the basic Windows, Cello worked on Windows NT 3.5 and with small modifications on OS/2.

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and data connections between the client and the server. FTP users may authenticate themselves with a clear-text sign-in protocol, normally in the form of a username and password, but can connect anonymously if the server is configured to allow it. For secure transmission that protects the username and password, and encrypts the content, FTP is often secured with SSL/TLS (FTPS) or replaced with SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

The resource fork is a fork or section of a file on Apple's classic Mac OS operating system, which was also carried over to the modern macOS for compatibility, used to store structured data along with the unstructured data stored within the data fork.

A filename extension, file name extension or file extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file. The extension indicates a characteristic of the file contents or its intended use. A filename extension is typically delimited from the rest of the filename with a full stop (period), but in some systems it is separated with spaces. Other extension formats include dashes and/or underscores on early versions of Linux and some versions of IBM AIX.

Finder (software) Macintosh file manager and GUI shell

The Finder is the default file manager and graphical user interface shell used on all Macintosh operating systems. Described in its "About" window as "The Macintosh Desktop Experience", it is responsible for the launching of other applications, and for the overall user management of files, disks, and network volumes. It was introduced with the first Macintosh computer, and also exists as part of GS/OS on the Apple IIGS. It was rewritten completely with the release of Mac OS X in 2001.

System 7 Apple Macintosh operating system released between 1991–1997

System 7, codenamed "Big Bang", and also known as Mac OS 7, is a graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers and is part of the classic Mac OS series of operating systems. It was introduced on May 13, 1991, by Apple Computer, Inc. It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997. Features added with the System 7 release included virtual memory, personal file sharing, QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D, and an improved user interface.

Configuration file Software file used to configure the initial settings for a computer program

In computing, configuration files are files used to configure the parameters and initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings.

Pegasus Mail Proprietary email system released for Novell Netware local area network.

Pegasus Mail is a proprietary email client developed by David Harris. It was originally released in 1990 for internal and external mail on NetWare networks with MS-DOS and later Apple Macintosh clients. It was subsequently ported to Microsoft Windows, which is now the only platform actively supported. Previously freeware, Pegasus Mail is now donationware.

Comparison of web browsers

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. For further references, a browser support matrix is a table of support of a Webpage by browsers.

Internet Explorer for Mac OS X Web browser for Apple computers developed by Microsoft from 1996 to 2003

Internet Explorer for Mac OS X is a proprietary web browser developed by Microsoft for the Macintosh platform to browse web pages. Initial versions were developed from the same code base as Internet Explorer for Windows. Later versions diverged, particularly with the release of version 5, which included the cutting-edge, fault-tolerant and highly standards-compliant Tasman layout engine.

Mozilla Firefox has features that allow it to be distinguished from other web browsers, such as Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 5 Fifth version of Internet Explorer

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) is a graphical web browser, the fifth version of Internet Explorer, the successor to Internet Explorer 4 and one of the main participants of the first browser war. Its distribution methods and Windows integration were involved in the United States v. Microsoft Corp. case. Launched on March 18, 1999, it was the default browser in Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000 and Windows Me and can replace previous versions of Internet Explorer on Windows 3.1x, Windows NT 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 98 First Edition. Although Internet Explorer 5 ran only on Windows, its siblings Internet Explorer for Mac 5 and Internet Explorer for UNIX 5 supported Mac OS X, Solaris and HP-UX.

Internet Explorer 4 Web browser of Microsoft

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (IE4) is a graphical web browser that Microsoft unveiled in Spring of 1997, and released in September 1997, primarily for Microsoft Windows, but also with versions available for the classic Mac OS, Solaris, and HP-UX and marketed as "The Web the Way You Want It".

In computing, Java Web Start is a deprecated framework developed by Sun Microsystems that allows users to start application software for the Java Platform directly from the Internet using a web browser. The technology enables seamless version updating for globally distributed applications and greater control of memory allocation to the Java virtual machine.

A menu bar is a graphical control element which contains drop-down menus.

VirusTotal Cybersecurity website owned by Chronicle

VirusTotal is a website created by the Spanish security company Hispasec Sistemas. Launched in June 2004, it was acquired by Google in September 2012. The company's ownership switched in January 2018 to Chronicle, a subsidiary of Google.

Gatekeeper (macOS)

Gatekeeper is a security feature of the macOS operating system by Apple. It enforces code signing and verifies downloaded applications before allowing them to run, thereby reducing the likelihood of inadvertently executing malware. Gatekeeper builds upon File Quarantine, which was introduced in Mac OS X Leopard and expanded in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The feature originated in version 10.7.3 of Mac OS X Lion as the command-line utility spctl. A graphical user interface was originally added in OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) but was backported to Lion with the 10.7.5 update.

References

  1. "Command Clicking".