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Comment by frik | Hacker News Reader

Steam always used a HTML renderer, even in its 2006 first incarnation. Nowadays it uses the same CEF (chrome library) as electron uses.

So Steam was one of the first "Electron" apps. A very first one was Windows Explorer as of Shell update that came with Internet Explorer for Windows 95 (included by default in Win98). All the sidebars of Explorer were HTML based.

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No, VGUI is not HTML.

Here's a fun one. Start Steam with `-dev` and hit F7. Widget factory VGUI edition!

Oh also, https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/VGUI_Documentation

Have I talked about VGUI? No.

Valve used a very ubscure/niche HTML render engine initially for Steam (2006). The company/website behind that isn't online anymore. An older version of the Wiki had some brief info, but all these info vanished.

Stop spewing bullshit.

Here's an old revision from 2005 by a Valve employee confirming Steam used VGUI back then.

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/index.php?title=VGUI_D...

It talks about the Steam overlay. Parts of the Steam application were always HTML. First the little known HTML renderer from a defunct company, than Trident and later CEF.

search for HTML: http://www.plastic-warfare.com/SteamUIGray.zip

Funny how the old things stay online. Notice also the cyber cafés menu entry. http://www.steampowered.com/status/game_stats.html

>A very first one was Windows Explorer as of Shell update that came with Internet Explorer for Windows 95 (included by default in Win98). All the sidebars of Explorer were HTML based.

That's a stretch; X/SG/HTML user interface APIs are not the same as a whole browser with Javascript VM, full networking and security stack, full-featured/standards-compliant (X)HTML/CSS rendering engine plus support for legacy features, UI assets, multimedia support, sandboxing, resource caching/persistence, and so on.

Win95 with shell update up to Windows Me and 2000 had the full trident engine (same as IE 3-5.5) in the Shell (Active Desktop, Explorer bars, etc.). Windows ME/2000 can play audio and video previews in the side bar (all HTML based).

Also WinXP used a forked Trident engine with some removed features for "Software" dialog and various other features (Windows Help, etc).

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