Apps with other functions, was: Re: Is there a way to post without a fee to newsgroups?

[Joachim Thiemann]

On 17/09/2007, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Golan Klinger wrote:
> It actually got me wondering when apps started really pushing (or forcing)
> functionality on users outside of their core reason for existing (such as a
> web browser trying to be an email client, or an email client trying to be a
> usenet client etc.)
>
> I suspect that aspect *is* on topic :-) Netscape circa mid-90's is one of the
> first culprits I can think of, but doubtless there were others long before
> then? (Note I'm not talking about small bundled utility apps or functionality
> which is related to the central purpose of an application - more the cases
> where something that was recognised as doing one job suddenly branched out and
> started offering something completely different)

How about that editor (or rater, originally a set of macros for an
editor) that implements a LISP interpreter, which can be an e-mail
client, news reader, ELIZA, ftp client, play tetris, be an IDE, etc,
etc...

Somewhat older that Netscape.  Caused more flamewars, too.  (Hope I'm
not starting one here!!!)

Joe.