Microsoft Bookshelf: differenze tra le versioni

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'''Microsoft Bookshelf''' è stato un [[Reference work|reference]] collezione introdotta a partire dal [[1987]] come parte [[Microsoft]]'s lavoro estensivo in [[CD-ROM]] promozionali tecnologici come distribuzione medium per [[electronic publishing]].

La versione originale di [[MS-DOS]] showcased the massive storage capacity of CD-ROM technology, and was accessed while the user was using one of 13 different word processor programs that Bookshelf supported. Subsequent versions were produced for [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and became a commercial success as part of the [[Microsoft Home]] brand. It was often bundled with [[personal computers]] as a cheaper alternative to the Encarta Suite.

==Contenuti==

The original 1987 edition contained ''[[Roget's Thesaurus]]'', ''[[The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]'', [[World Almanac]] and Book of Facts, [[Bartlett's Familiar Quotations]], [[The Chicago Manual of Style]] (13th Edition), the U.S. ZIP Code Directory, Houghton Mifflin Usage Alert, [[Houghton Mifflin]] Spelling Verifier and Corrector, Business Information Sources, and Forms and Letters. <ref name="Bookshelf 87"> {{cite web

|title=Computers for Lawyers|work=Chapter 25

|first=Paul|last=Bernstein|publisher=ATLA Press 1992 ISBN 0-941916-64-2|year=1992

|id=ISBN 0-941916-64-2|accessdate=2006-04-18

|url=http://www.cyberbarassociation.net/cfl/book/chpt25.htm}}</ref>

The Windows release of Bookshelf added a number of new reference titles, including the ''The Concise [[Columbia Encyclopedia]]''. Other titles were added and some were dropped in subsequent years. By 1994, the [[English language|English-language]] also contained the ''[[Columbia Dictionary of Quotations]]''; ''The Concise [[Columbia Encyclopedia]]''; the ''[[Hammond Intermediate World Atlas]]''; and ''[[The People's Chronology]]''.<ref name="Bookshelf 94"> {{cite web

|title=Microsoft Bookshelf 1994

|first=Birger|last=Nielsen|author=Birger Nielsen|work=The Tea Page

|url=http://www.246.dk/teamsb94.html|year=2006|accessdate=2006-04-18}}</ref> By 2000, the collection came to include the ''[[Encarta]] Desk Encyclopedia'', the ''Encarta Desk Atlas'', and a specialized [[Web directory|Internet Directory]].

In later editions of the Encarta Suite (2000 and onwards), Bookshelf was replaced with a dedicated ''Encarta Dictionary'', a superset of the printed edition. There has been some controversy over the decision, since the dictionary lacks the other books provided in Bookshelf which many found to be a useful reference, such as the dictionary of quotations (replaced with a quotations section in ''Encarta'' that links to relevant articles and people) and the Internet Directory, although the directory is now a [[wikt:moot point|moot point]] since many of the sites listed in offline directories no longer exist.

==Technology==

===Bookshelf 1.0 engine===

Bookshelf 1.0 used a [[proprietary]] [[hypertext]] engine that Microsoft acquired when it bought the company Cytation in 1986.<ref name="Microsoft 1980s"> {{cite web

|title=A History of the Personal Computer: The People and the Technology

|work=Chapter 12 Microsoft in the 1980s

|first=Roy|last=Allan|publisher=Allan Publishing 2001 ISBN 0-9689108-0-7 |year=2001

|id=ISBN 0-9689108-0-7|accessdate=2006-04-18

|url=http://www.retrocomputing.net/info/allan/eBook12.pdf

}}</ref> Also used for Microsoft Stat Pack and Microsoft Small Business Consultant, the Bookshelf was a [[Terminate and Stay Resident]] program that ran alongside a dominant program, unbeknownst to the dominant program. Like Apple's similar [[Hypercard]] reader, Bookshelf engine's files used a single [[compound document]], containing large numbers of subdocuments ("cards" or "articles"). They both differ from current browsers which normally treat each "page" or "article" as a separate file.

Though similar to Apple's [[Hypercard]] reader in many ways, the Bookshelf engine had several key differences. Unlike Hypercard files, Bookshelf files required compilation and complex markup codes. This made the files more difficult to pirate, addressing a key concern of early electronic publishers. Furthermore, Bookshelf's engine was designed to run as fast as possible on slow first-generation [[CD-ROM]] drives, some of which required as much as a half-second to move the drive head. Such hardware constraints made Hypercard impractical for high-capacity CD-ROMs. Bookshelf also had full text searching capability, which made it easy to find needed information.

===Bookshelf 2.0 engine===

Collaborating with [[DuPont]], the Microsoft CD-ROM division developed a [[Windows]] version of its engine for applications as diverse as [[Document management system|document management]], [[online help]], and a CD-ROM [[encyclopedia]]. In a [[skunk works]] 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 componentry|software objects]],<ref name=Viewer 2.0>{{cite book|

title=Microsoft Multimedia Viewer How-To Cd: Create Exciting Multimedia With Video, Animation, Music, and Speech for Windows/Book and Cd|

last=Pruitt|first=Stephen|publisher=Waite Group Pr|id=ISBN 1-878739-60-3|url=http://www.amazon.com/dp/1878739603/

}}</ref> 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.

===Viewer 3.0===

In 1993, the developers who were working on the next generation viewer were moved to the [[Cairo (operating system)|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.

Like other hypermedia engines of the time, Microsoft like Apple struggled and failed to understand how it could make money directly from a multimedia browser. Long after the internet revolution, companies continue to struggle to understand how to make money directly from multimedia browser technology but seldom succeed.