1996. I was working at Schwab and writing the documentation for the software I'd written to support what became SchwabPlan. Writing the software was cool, but this was a thin client that ran (nearly) anywhere.

So an issue of scale? Sounds also as you are limiited by other software, OS or even hardware issues? Local storage, perhaps?

Writing documentation in HTML was cool because it could be linked so easily. The stuff written for software shipped to end-users could be linked to docs written for the internal software used to open accounts and the software used for trade execution.

It was also current without me emailing updates or corrections, so end-user support didn't have to worry about having the latest release.

Ah, for the good old days? Or what could have been if we hadn't decided a web site must also be an app. We broke our own tools in a rush for...I still don't know because the mess you're facing is in part to my thinking the obfuscation of something meant to be palpable.

I mourn with you, but the good old days were a long time ago. I was getting pushed back 10 years ago every time I pushed to use Progressive Enhancement.

I mourn with you too. We are of an era that felt like an evolution of ideals that would rapidly make life and tech better. It still can, but it's not a close community anymore. The opposite. Pendulums swing. Who knows what's to come. Jack Dorsey as Philanthropist for example ;-)

LOL. Yeah. I don't generally think of philanthropy (or any other ethical behavior, really) when I think of any of the big three.

Who do you consider the big three now? It's changed and changes so fast now.

Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Google and Facebook not so much because of users or interaction but because of the million other ways they shape the web.