<![CDATA[Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer.]]>Twenty five years ago today I started the and projects at Computer.

Which means Safari is now old enough to rent itself a car. But let's not speculate about my age.

I'm still sad I can't use Safari on my Windows PC. Alas, I lost the battle to keep it there. But at least WebKit's DNA seeded or influenced most browsers we use today.

And I'm proud of that impact. Along with the wonderful team I built who made it all happen. Here's to another 25, friends.

Cheers. πŸ₯‚πŸ˜ŠπŸ’–

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/topic/80ade358-597c-466a-b942-127a84793a02/twenty-five-years-ago-today-i-started-the-safari-and-webkit-projects-at-apple-computer.RSS for NodeSun, 12 Jul 2026 15:56:54 GMTThu, 25 Jun 2026 17:18:49 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:35:17 GMT]]>@CoralineAda You are very welcome and I'm so glad I could make a difference! πŸ€—πŸ₯°πŸ’–

And, yes, I was both renowned and cursed for my zero regression policy regarding performance. 😊

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812186740019701https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812186740019701Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:35:17 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:31:58 GMT]]>@lisamelton I saw you on stage at a WWDC talking about Safari, saying that the team wouldn't merge any PR that negatively impacted render speeds, IIRC. You were the first trans technologist I saw on stage! I hadn't started yet but seeing you up there made a difference. Thanks. ❀

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ruby.social/users/CoralineAda/statuses/116812173710138081https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ruby.social/users/CoralineAda/statuses/116812173710138081Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:31:58 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:31:08 GMT]]>@mkoek Indeed. But some nerds got wind of me hiring David Hyatt before our WWDC unveiling and thought Safari would be based on Firefox.

So, when Steve flashed a 20-foot-high slide with the words, "KHTML and KJS" on the stage, someone in the audience a dozen rows behind be shouted, "What the fuck?!?"

It. Was. Epic. 🀣

@eliasp @bigolewannabe @slashdot

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812170435727681https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812170435727681Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:31:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:30:04 GMT]]>@lisamelton Well Epiphany or GNOME Web uses WebKit

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://pfalz.social/users/zimbi/statuses/116812166253342208https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://pfalz.social/users/zimbi/statuses/116812166253342208Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:30:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:28:08 GMT]]>@lisamelton Perhaps this was the right time all along. Much love.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/kimlockhartga/statuses/116812158623261450https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://beige.party/users/kimlockhartga/statuses/116812158623261450Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:28:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:27:26 GMT]]>@jeridansky @lisamelton Ditto!

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/chefraven/statuses/116812155904410709https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://sfba.social/users/chefraven/statuses/116812155904410709Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:27:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:25:40 GMT]]>@eliasp @lisamelton @bigolewannabe That long ago already…? Man I remember the excitement on @slashdot back when this was announced. Big vendors adopting open source was not yet common, at all. It was a big deal.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/mkoek/statuses/116812148944928778https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.nl/users/mkoek/statuses/116812148944928778Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:25:40 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:21:46 GMT]]>@bigolewannabe LOL! Indeed. 🀣

I used to quote Ernie Hudson's line as Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters when detailing some of the egregious HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Web server behavior I've encountered from working on Netscape Navigator in the 90s and then Safari:

"I've seen shit that'll turn you white."

And, yeah, it's just that scary.

@eliasp

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812133594023601https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812133594023601Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:21:46 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:15:59 GMT]]>@lisamelton thank you for you service πŸ«‚πŸ˜˜πŸ’œ

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/webhat/statuses/116812110843307347https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://infosec.exchange/users/webhat/statuses/116812110843307347Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:15:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:14:29 GMT]]>@eliasp Thanks. Fixed.

@bigolewannabe

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812104980256345https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812104980256345Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:14:29 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:14:26 GMT]]>@lisamelton πŸŽ‰πŸ‘πŸ»

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ngmx.com/users/sindarina/statuses/116812104777828142https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://ngmx.com/users/sindarina/statuses/116812104777828142Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:14:26 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:57 GMT]]>@lisamelton

That exactly what I meant and yes. I'm not disparaging those teams either. Browsers engines are HARD. Doing them right takes a long time. Doing them well takes even longer. The edge cases and have edge cases.

@eliasp

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/bigolewannabe/statuses/116812102845418956https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/bigolewannabe/statuses/116812102845418956Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:43 GMT]]>@cubeofcheese It was only actively developed for a few years starting in 2007.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812101925637992https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812101925637992Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:27 GMT]]>@lisamelton @bigolewannabe s/2023/2003/

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/eliasp/statuses/116812100878751371https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/eliasp/statuses/116812100878751371Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:27 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:12 GMT]]>@lisamelton

Congrats.

I had some gripes with Safari in the '10s. It always seemed to blocking powerful modern progressive web apps somewhere every time you tried. Very limited localstorage implementation, difficult manifest handling over online states, limited SVG support, very, very, very late support of webRTC.

I always had the nagging suspicion this was by design to keep people paying the app store tax.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fairmove.net/users/gvenema/statuses/116812099892293233https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://fairmove.net/users/gvenema/statuses/116812099892293233Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:13:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:11:43 GMT]]>@d4v Thank you so much for being such a loyal defender of Safari! πŸ€—πŸ’–

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812094047314079https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812094047314079Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:11:43 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:10:30 GMT]]>@lisamelton I didn’t know there was a Safari for windows

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/cubeofcheese/statuses/116812089322049158https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mstdn.social/users/cubeofcheese/statuses/116812089322049158Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:10:30 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:09:04 GMT]]>@bigolewannabe Yes, but the people who hired me at Apple wanted a Web browser and Web library in one year.

I knew that was impossible, but I figured they wouldn't fire me if I took 18 months. Which is exactly how long it did take before we unveiled the public Beta in January of 2003.

Only a fool would write everything from scratch with pressure like that. And I was no fool.

That's not to disparage the work by the Arc and Servo teams, but they didn't have the constraints that I did.

@eliasp

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812083646403059https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812083646403059Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:09:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:03:51 GMT]]>@lisamelton All the people say Safari sucks everytime I mention that I'm using Safari. I think it's one of the best browsers right now 😊

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/d4v/statuses/116812063158456180https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/d4v/statuses/116812063158456180Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:03:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:03:03 GMT]]>@jeridansky Awwww, thank you so much! 😊πŸ₯°πŸ’–

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812060016477780https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812060016477780Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:03:03 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:02:51 GMT]]>@lisamelton

We even have a couple of examples. The clean room browser engines that have been popping up like Arc and Servo have been going for years and years and aren't fully compliant engines yet. Standards compat is hard to catch up to esp since they're moving forward at the same time.

@eliasp

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/bigolewannabe/statuses/116812059202695815https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://hachyderm.io/users/bigolewannabe/statuses/116812059202695815Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:02:51 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:02:21 GMT]]>@TheEddieShow Guilty as charged! πŸ€“

@eliasp

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812057275527041https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812057275527041Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:02:21 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:01:18 GMT]]>@eliasp Also, the KHTML and KJS code did not suck. It was rather incomplete and raw, but it was well-written and something I knew could be a project my browser-inexperienced team could learn on.

It wasn't until I lured David Hyatt away from Mozilla, after he started Firefox, that we really began to change KHTML and KJS.

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812053129384118https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812053129384118Thu, 25 Jun 2026 18:01:18 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Twenty five years ago today I started the #Safari and #WebKit projects at #Apple Computer. on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:56:04 GMT]]>@octothorpe Indeed! And you are very welcome. πŸ˜ŠπŸ’–

]]>https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812032538375241https://forum.fedi.dk/post/https://mastodon.social/users/lisamelton/statuses/116812032538375241Thu, 25 Jun 2026 17:56:04 GMT