APACHE MODULE DEVELOPMENT KIT AVAILABLE FOR MAC WEBMASTERS
Tenon open sources W*API Apache module to accelerate OS X Transition
Santa Barbara, CA, May 12, 2000. Tenon Intersystems today released the
sources for a significant component of their WebTen Apache implementation.
This open source distribution is designed to help Macintosh WebSTAR plug-in
developers who want to develop Apache modules. The distribution also
includes dynamic module Apache plug-in support, Mac OS Toolbox API for
building hybrid UNIX/Mac modules and Macintosh ACGI support.
WebTen, heralded as the fastest and easiest to use Apache, was introduced
in 1997, bringing Apache to the Macintosh platform for the first time. A
key component of the WebTen development included extending Apache to
support WebSTAR-style plug-ins. The WebSTAR plug-in interface is unique to
the Mac OS platform. Including a mod_wsapi (the Apache module that
implemented the WebSTAR plug-in specification) allowed Macintosh webmasters
that embraced WebTen to take advantage of standard Apache modules and
standard internet Perl and PHP CGIs, while also keeping their legacy
WebSTAR plug-ins. Now that Mac OS X is available with built-in Apache and a
standard Apache execution environment, WebSTAR plug-in developers will want
to build Apache modules, giving them access to the more than six million
Apache web sites, across heterogeneous platforms, and enhancing their
plug-in performance.
In addition to open sourcing a significant portion of the WebTen code,
Tenon is also releasing an open source development tool suite that will
make the transition from WebSTAR plug-ins to Apache modules easier. The
combined package is called Open-WebTen. The current software development
platform for Open-WebTen is Tenon’s MachTen (UNIX) for Mac OS. The sources
could easily be modified to run under Mac OS X Server. Thus, either
platform (Mac OS or Mac OS X Server) could be used to develop Apache
modules for eventual deployment on Mac OS X or on Linux. Open-WebTen is
available for download at
http://iris2.sysci.org/tenon/open-webten_1.2.6-src.tar.gz
Tenon’s web server software gives webmasters an evolutionary path from Mac
OS to OS X Server to OS X, enabling them to gracefully move content and CGI
scripts from one platform to another, all with a consistent architecture
for secure web and mail delivery. Tenon’s web server software for Mac OS X,
iTools, is a suite of internet tools for professional webmasters that
extends and enhances Apple’s built-in Apache. Apple’s OS X, coupled with
the new G4 processors and Tenon’s iTools, provides the foundation for
world-class content delivery.
Tenon has benefited from the open source community for many years and, most
recently, from the outstanding work of the Apache Software Foundation. We
are very pleased that we are able to give back something to this generous
and very capable community.
Founded in 1989, Tenon Intersystems is a leader in high-performance
networking. Tenon Intersystems can be reached in the U.S. at 805-963-6983,
by the internet at sales@tenon.com, or via the web at http://www.tenon.com.