Top all-time · #2594
Don Melton
Personal blog · donmelton.comprogrammingdesignhistory
Don Melton's personal blog at donmelton.com covers programming, design and history. Since 2012, 29 different Hacker News readers have linked it 42 times, most often “The Time when Safari was released to the world”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Blog of Don Melton, who started the Safari and WebKit projects at Apple. HN readers link his posts on Safari's early history, Steve Jobs, and browser and iOS engineering.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- The Time when Safari was released to the world4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2019-04-09
- Memories of Steve3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2014-04-11
- Stories of Steve Jobs in Safari Design Reviews (2014)3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-12-06
- Safari is released to the world2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-11
- /about/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2013-01-11
- Don Melton: happy twentieth to Safari and WebKit (2021)2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-25
What Hacker News says?
Interestingly, that the progress bar/URL field combo was co-invented by Steve Jobs: See https://donmelton.com/2014/04/10/memories-of-steve/
Comment linking /2014/04/10/memories-of-steve/
on “Infinite Mac”Submitted Safari is released to the world as a story · 425 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure Melton credited Forstall with giving with the support and cover for safari/khtml - she's written extensively about it. https://donmelton.com/2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-w... And for Apple Maps, I remember reading somewhere that one reason Forstall refused to sign the infamous apology letter was that the initial release was from a team not directly under his supervision, but I can't find the…
Comment linking /2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-world/
on “macOS Tahoe”Submitted Memories of Steve as a story · 399 points
HN discussionOn one of the Debug[1] podcasts (I can't remember which one now), Don Melton[2] claims the decision to not allow other web rendering engines or Javascript implementations is because they don't know how to allow those and keep iOS secure, and that is the reason behind a lot of limitations enforced in iOS. Apple is certainly more closed than Microsoft ever was. The difference in perception is likely because Apple has…
Comment linking /about/
on “Firefox for iOS now available”Submitted When I first heard the name "Safari" as a story · 350 points
HN discussionFrom his website: "Hello, I'm Don Melton, probably best known as the guy who started the Safari and WebKit projects at Apple. These days I'm just an aspiring writer and a recovering programmer." http://donmelton.com/about/
Comment linking /about/
on “Safari is released to the world”Submitted Why I Retired From Apple as a story · 300 points
HN discussionThat’s not at all the impression I get from interviews and reports by former Apple employees (0)(1). They almost always have huge respect for the execs they worked for. Bear in mind all the Apple execs for engineering groups are themselves engineers. It’s a highly disciplined and focused organisation, but that’s not the same thing as top down and good engineering is highly prized. Take Steve Jobs. He was infamous fo…
Comment linking /archives/
on “Samsung Electronics cultural issues causing disasters in foundry, LSI, DRAM”Submitted Keeping Safari a secret as a story · 283 points
HN discussionAnd Safari Story from Don Melton https://donmelton.com/2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-w...
Comment linking /2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-world/
on “These are called opportunities”Submitted Stories of Steve Jobs in Safari Design Reviews (2014) as a story · 233 points
HN discussionNot sure if you're getting downvoted for "gramps" – but in case people don't know: https://donmelton.com/2015/11/30/why-they-call-me-gramps/
Comment linking /2015/11/30/why-they-call-me-gramps/
on “Stories of Steve Jobs in Safari Design Reviews (2014)”Submitted What the new video compression strategy from Netflix means for Apple and Amazon as a story · 158 points
HN discussionWhether something like this ever becomes widespread depends on WebGL becoming popular, which in turn depends on WebGL becoming sufficiently secure. In an interview on the Debug podcast, Don Melton describes hardening WebGL, which involves hardening the whole stack down to the hardware level, as a significant challenge. http://donmelton.com/2013/03/25/im-on-the-debug-podcast-this... I wouldn't hold my breath.
Comment linking /2013/03/25/im-on-the-debug-podcast-this-week/
on “Today I saw the future”Submitted Link rot and redirect madness as a story · 93 points
HN discussionPriorities change unfortunately. Read this article if you have time. It highlights the importance and passion that was given to safari at a time. I am sure most engineers working on safari are still having great ideas for the product but management will not be on the same page as them. https://donmelton.com/2014/04/10/memories-of-steve/
Comment linking /2014/04/10/memories-of-steve/
on “State of web browsers in 2018”Submitted Regarding fake projects and loyalty tests as a story · 48 points
HN discussionWow, the original submission which linked to this article ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5041354 , http://donmelton.com/2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-wo... ) is #1 and this submission is #4
Comment linking /2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-world/
on “Greetings from the Safari team at Apple Computer (2003)”Submitted Lesson learned from a performance scare as a story · 9 points
HN discussionThis applies to our own industry. For those of us that have been in it for awhile -- keeping abreast of what is going on, reading about "new paradigms" and how they may just be new incarnations of what we have seen before, continuous learning is key. For those getting started, battle stories can be interesting and provide insight. Don Melton's blog - http://donmelton.com JWZ's blog - http://jwz.org The * at Work ser…
Comment linking /
on “With Rifle and Bibliography: General Mattis on Professional Reading”Submitted Memories of Steve (2014) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionSadly Apple took the wind out of my all-time favorite browser, Camino, née Chimera, when they started up the WebKit/Safari project by hiring away key people like Dave Hyatt: https://donmelton.com/2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-w...
Comment linking /2013/01/10/safari-is-released-to-the-world/
on “Chromium-based Edge preview builds”Submitted Be still my beating heart as a story · 5 points
HN discussionhttps://donmelton.com/2012/12/19/when-i-first-heard-the-name...
Comment linking /2012/12/19/when-i-first-heard-the-name-safari/
on “Apple Names Things”Submitted My Traitorous Move to Windows as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Powered by WordPress, proudly or not as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why they call me “Gramps” as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Missed opportunities as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why I retired from Apple as a story · 3 points
HN discussion
