Cello (web browser)

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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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="cello browser">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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.<ref name="maxpc">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="1st browser">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In addition to the basic Windows, Cello worked on Windows NT 3.5<ref name="nt35">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="nt35.2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and with small modifications on OS/2.<ref name="os2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Randall1994" />

Cello was created because of a demand for Web access by lawyers, who were more likely to use Microsoft Windows than the Unix operating systems supporting earlier Web browsers, including the first release of Mosaic. The lack of a Windows browser meant many legal experts were unable to access legal information made available in hypertext on the World Wide Web.<ref name="maxpc" /><ref name="Living Internet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Cello was popular during 1993/1994, but fell out of favor following the release of Mosaic for Windows and Netscape, after which Cello development was abandoned.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="CanterSiegel1994">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="tech trends">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="windows web browser">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref group="A">You can view yahoo browser statistics at https://web.archive.org/web/20021204042351/http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~ejk/bryl/ which show Cello being used.</ref><ref name="Gay2000">Template:Cite book</ref>

Cello was first publicly released on 8 June 1993.<ref name=".1 beta release" /> A version 2.0 was announced, but development was abandoned. Version 1.01a, 16 April 1994, was the last public release.<ref name="best browser">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="Cello 2.0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Since then, the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School has licensed the Cello 2.0 source code, which has been used to develop commercial software.<ref name="Cello 2.0" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The browser is no longer available from its original homepage.<ref group="A">The original cello site at https://www.law.cornell.edu/cello/cellotop.html is no longer up. The original ftp site at ftp://ftp.law.cornell.edu/pub/LII/CelloTemplate:Dead link is no longer up. The original gopher server at gopher.law.cornell.edu:70/11/listservs/cellol/ is no longer up.</ref> However, it can still be downloaded from mirror sites.<ref group="A">Cello can still be downloaded at https://browsers.evolt.org/browsers/archive/cello Template:Webarchive .</ref>

Development and history

File:Cello old.gif

The icon prior to version 1

The development of Cello started in 1992, with beta versions planned for June 1993 and a release for July 1993.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Sheppard2007">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="pioneering">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It was publicly announced on 12 April 1993.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School created the first law site on the Internet in 1992 and the first legal website in 1993. However, at the time, there were no web browsers for the Microsoft Windows operating system, which was used by most lawyers. Thus, to allow lawyers to use their website, the Legal Information Institute developed the first Windows-based Web browser.<ref name="Ambrogi2004">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Okin2005">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Reilly2003">Template:Cite book</ref> This was made possible by a grant from the National Center for Automated Information Research.<ref group ="A">This can be seen in the "About Cello" dialog in Cello. It is also stated in the "Notices, Acknowledgments, Disclaimers" section of the included .hlp file in Cello.</ref>

Although other browsers at the time were based on CERN's WWW libraries called libwww, PCs of the time were not powerful enough to run the UNIX-oriented code.<ref name="pioneering"/> As a result, Thomas Bruce had to rewrite most of the WWW libraries to work on Microsoft Windows.<ref name="pioneering"/> Unlike most commercial browsers at that time, Cello used none of Mosaic's source code and thus had a different look and feel.<ref name="Shang-Chul Pak">Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name="Vaughan-Nichols1995">Template:Cite book</ref>

Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows division at Microsoft wrote in a June 1994 email: We do not currently plan on any other client software [in the upcoming release of Windows 95], especially something like Mosaic or Cello.<ref name="antitrust doj">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="wired1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Nevertheless, on 11 January 1995, Microsoft announced that it had licensed the Mosaic technology from Spyglass, which it would use to create Internet Explorer.<ref name="wired1" /> On 15 August 1995, Microsoft debuted its own web browser Internet Explorer 1 for Windows 95. While it did not ship with the original release of Windows 95, it shipped with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95.

Usage

When released in 1993, Cello was the only browser for the Microsoft Windows platform. Shortly after launch, Cello was being downloaded at a rate of 500 copies per day.<ref name="GilliesCailliau2000">Template:Cite book</ref> As such, it achieved a fair amount of use and recognition within the legal community, including a number of PC users with between 150,000 and 200,000 users.<ref name="pioneering"/> In 1994, most websites were visited using either the Cello browser or the Mosaic browser.<ref name="practical internet">Template:Cite book</ref> Despite having fewer features than Mosaic, Cello continued to be used due to its simpler interface and lower system requirements.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}. Retrieved 2014-03-17.</ref> Cello was praised for being easy to install, because it wasn't necessary to install Win32s or a TCP/IP stack for Windows 3.1.<ref name="adahome">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following the release of Windows 95, which offered a much better TCP/IP interface, Cello fell into disuse and was abandoned.<ref name="practical internet"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By 1995, Cello, like the Mosaic browser, was overshadowed by two newer browsers — Netscape and Internet Explorer — and fell into disuse.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> By 1999, Cello was considered to be a "historical" browser.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Castells2002">Template:Cite book</ref>

Cello is considered to be one of the early casualties of the first browser wars.<ref name="Kent1999">Template:Cite book</ref>

Features

Cello had the following features:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Template:Columns-list

Unlike Mosaic, Cello did not have toolbar buttons,{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }}<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and instead commands were accessed through pull-down menus.<ref name="Shang-Chul Pak" />

Supported Protocols

Cello supported the following protocols: HTTP 1.0, Gopher (but not Gopher+), read-only FTP,<ref name="faq1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> SMTP mailing, Telnet,<ref name="faq2" /> Usenet,<ref name="FHEmden">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> CSO/ph/qi directly<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and WAIS, HyTelnet, TechInfo, Archie, X.500, TN3270 and a number of others through public gateways.<ref name="cello browser" /><ref name="GilliesCailliau2000"/><ref name="V.8" /><ref name="faq2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="supported protocls">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Kressin1997">Template:Cite book</ref>

Supported FTP servers

Cello supported the following FTP servers: most Unix servers (including SunOS, System V, and Linux), IBM VM, VMS systems, Windows NT, QVTNet, NCSA/CUTCP/Rutgers PC servers, FTP Software PC server, HellSoft NLM for Novell.<ref name="version1" /><ref name="faq1" />

Internet Connection

Cello works best with a direct Ethernet connection, but it also supports SLIP and PPP dialup connections through the use of asynchronous sockets.<ref name="cello browser" /> Cello has an integrated TCP/IP runtime stack.<ref name="adahome" />

Release history

The following versions were released:<ref name=".1 beta release" />

16-bit Cello Releases

Version	Date<ref>If no reference is given and dates differ across files, oldest date is taken.</ref>	Development cycle	Exe size<ref>Size taken from uncompressed exe file properties. Zip file size not used, because it's changeable (depends on compression method or files inside zip).</ref> (in kb)	Download	Notes
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	8 June 1993	Beta	347	evolt Template:Webarchive	Requires Distinct<ref>MirrorTemplate:Dead link ftp.w3.org/pc-binaries/windows</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref> to run
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	14 June 1993	Beta	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Changelog
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	16 June 1993	Beta	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Changelog
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	18 June 1993	Beta	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Changelog
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	24 June 1993	Beta	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Changelog
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	30 June 1993	Beta	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno	Changelog
WINSOCK alpha r3	6 September 1993	Alpha	374	[1]	Double click to visit link, right click to show url. Browser request contain only a GET line.<ref>GET url\x0a</ref> Doesn't support redirections
WINSOCK alpha r6	14 October 1993	Alpha	362	[2]Template:Dead link (cello-ws.zip)	Browser request contain only a GET line.<ref>GET url\x0d\x0a</ref> Doesn't support redirections
0.8<ref name="V.8" />	5 November 1993	Beta	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Changelog (Distinct version discontinued)
0.9<ref group="A">Given in the "about Cello" - windows in Cello .9 beta</ref>	12 November 1993	Beta-pre	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
0.9<ref group="A">Given in the "README.1ST" of Cello</ref>	16 November 1993	Beta	487	[3]	Changelog. GET requests use presently invalid protocol version.<ref>GET url HTTP/V1.0 Fix: load exe file into hex editor (also available online, for example hexed.it). Search for string "HTTP/". Remove byte with letter "V", insert byte after string "User-Agent:" and set it to space. Save the file under new name.</ref> Redirections are supported.<ref>Browser hangs when "Location" header isn't an exact match (for example if its all in lowercase like on this redirect test page)</ref> Crashes on pages with unsupported image files<ref>Also crashes when image source doesn't contain an url with file extension. Supported images (information taken from exe file; both lowercase and uppercase file extensions): gif (not animated), bmp, pcx, xbm.</ref>
0.9<ref group="A">Given in the "DEFAULT.HTML" of Cello .9</ref>	22 November 1993	WINSOCK alpha r9.2	494	[4]	Issues from 0.9 beta still present. New issue: in img tag, src must be the last attribute<ref>If src attribute isn't last, Cello will treat everything after src= as image url (after removing all quotes), to the end of img tag.</ref>
1.0<ref name="version1" />	17 February 1994	Release	Template:Dunno	evolt Template:Webarchive
1.01	Template:Dunno	Release	Template:Dunno	Template:Dunno
citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	17 March 1994	release	521<ref name="FHEmden"/>	[5], evolt Template:Webarchive	File:Cello splash.png Cello's splash screen. Note that the image is not that of a cello, but rather a viola da gamba, its aristocratic predecessor Changelog
2.0	Template:N/a	Alpha	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	File:Cello 2.0 (screenshot).gif A screenshot of Cello 2.0 in development. development ceased, first version to support HTML forms<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="version1" />

Although Cello 2.0 had been announced, development ceased before a public release.<ref name="Cello 2.0" />

IBM released a fix for their TCP/IP V2.0 stack so that Cello would work with OS/2 WinOS/2 on 9 February 1994.<ref name="APAR #PN52335 fix" />

Browser comparison table

The following table shows how Cello compared to browsers of its time.

Comparison of Web Browsers

Browser		Cello	NCSA X-Mosaic	NCSA Mosaic	Netscape Navigator	Spyglass Mosaic	AIR Mosaic	InternetWorks	Win-Tapestry	IBM WebExplorer
Operating system		Win	UNIX	Win	Win	Win	Win	Win	Win	OS/2
Version		1	2.4	2.0 alpha 3	1	1.02	3.06	Beta 4	1.67	0.91
proxy		Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Partial
extended html		Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Performance
	multithreading	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
	dynamic linking	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
	deferred image	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
	multi-pane	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No
	multi-window	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
Configurability
	kiosk mode	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	external players	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
Integration
	d&d to clipboard	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	spawnable players	Template:No	Template:Partial	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Partial	Template:Yes
	search engine(Find)	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Navigation
	hotlist	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes
	bookmark	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	folders	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
	categories (tags)	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	menu/button bar	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	import	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	export	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	annotation	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	auto time stamp	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
Source: Template:Cite journal

Derivatives

• The first edition of BURKS, a project to produce non-profit CD-ROMs of resources for students of Computer Science, was based on Cello.<ref name="burks">Template:Cite journal</ref>
• InterAp, by California Software Inc, was based on Cello and featured a web browser with Telnet, FTP, and a Visual Basic-compatible scripting language called NetScripts.<ref name="Network World1"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• A version of Lovelace came bundled<ref>You can still download latest bundle (with unmodified exe of Cello 1.01a) by manually replacing "lovelace.zip" with "lovecell.zip" in the http server link.</ref> with Cello.<ref name="lovelace"/>

Technical

While originally Cello required the Distinct Corporation's TCP/IP stack, with the release of Cello Beta Version .8, Cello dropped support for Distinct, and became exclusively Winsock-based.<ref name="V.8" /><ref name="AUUGN distinct">Template:Cite book</ref>

Originally, although Cello could run on OS/2, OS/2's implementation of Winsock had bugs that prevented Cello from accessing the Internet.<ref name="faq2" /> The bug, APAR #PN52335, was later fixed allowing Cello to properly work on OS/2.<ref name="faq2" /><ref name="APAR #PN52335 fix">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The user agent for Cello is LII-Cello/<version> libwww/2.5.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

DDE support

Cello featured Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) support. OLE support and DDE client support were planned, but never released.<ref name="faq2" />

An example of how to invoke Cello from a Microsoft Word macro: <syntaxhighlight lang="vbscript"> Sub MAIN ChanNum = DDEInitiate("Cello", "URL") DDEExecute(ChanNum, "http://www.law.cornell.edu") DDETerminate(ChanNum) End Sub </syntaxhighlight>

System requirements

Cello has the following system requirements: <ref name="cello browser" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="pcbrowsers">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Processor: 80386(386SX) at 16 MHz<ref name="cello browser"/><ref name="lovelace">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> or better<ref name="WAG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Operating system: Windows 3.1 / 3.11 / Windows NT 3.5<ref name="nt35" /><ref name="nt35.2" /> / OS/2.<ref name="os2" />
• Ram: 2 MB RAM,<ref name="Shang-Chul Pak" /> 4 MB RAM recommended<ref name="version1" />
• A TCP/IP connection running Winsock

Criticism

Cello was not very stable and its development halted early.<ref name="FHEmden"/>

Cello did not render graphics well and required that the user reload the webpage when resizing the window. Like most browsers at the time, Cello also did not support any web security protocols.<ref name="Vaughan-Nichols1995"/> It was also said that Cello rendered html "crudely" and pages would appear jaggedly.<ref name="Shang-Chul Pak" /><ref name="Vaughan-Nichols1995"/><ref name="cnet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Cello also had sub-par performance in accessing the Internet and processing hypermedia documents.<ref name="Shang-Chul Pak" /><ref name="cnet" />

See also

• Lynx
• Mosaic
• MacWeb
• Libwww

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

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