What was Delicious Library before it became the massively popular book-cataloging behemoth it is today? Most people don't know the real story behind the roots of the app...

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...actually, I was only around 13 years old. I'd just started developing simple shareware for the Mac. And around this time I also started up Waterfall Software, and had just gotten to know people like Drew Hamlin, as well as plenty of other young Mac developers. One of those developers was a kid named Andrew Kazmierski, who ran Chronopath, Inc. Although we directly competed with each other (we both had font viewer & password manager apps), we'd often show each other ideas and designs anyways, just for the heck of it.



One day, Kaz decided to show me his latest application, aptly named "Library." Library was an application to organize your bookshelf within a friendly Mac user interface. Although there were other similar programs, none were slick looking Mac OS X applications, and Library was swimming in aqua and Cocoa goodness. Although I didn't see the point, I thought it *looked* pretty cool at least. In true "developer wars" fashion, creators of competing programs got a tad bit defensive, too.




Library instantly became more popular than anything that Drew, I, or Kaz had done before. Soon, many people knew about Library, and similar applications popped out from everywhere. Nonetheless, it was a great app, and the guy from Intelliscanner noticed this immediately. He approached Andrew about an agreement to bundle Library with his line of barcode scanners, as well as add scanner support to Library. Andrew quickly agreed, and soon the book-scanning duo was off to a quick start. But somewhere down the line, something went wrong.

Intelli Software was becoming less interested in Library, ignoring Andrew at times. MacAddict magazine also posted a less than flattering review on the Intelliscanner bundle. Something really did go seriously wrong. Soon after, Intelli Software released Collector, an app that was strikingly similar to Library. Same layout, similar icons, similar functionality. You would have to be crazy to not see it as anything less than a direct ripoff. Although frustrated, Kaz knew Library still had potential. And he was just finishing up the touches on the next release.

Alas, Library 2.0 added support for Movies, Music, and Games, as well as the existing Books. It also sported a brand new brushed metal user interface, a trait that was less common in those days. Unfortunately, it really did not look quite as swift as Library 1.0 did, and some features were either missing or broken. People did not seem to appreciate Library 2.0. Andrew knew something had to be done.

And so he hired Mike Matas to design the user interface as well as icons for a new version of Library - version 3.0. Matas knew good UI design, after doing plenty of it over at Omni. The preliminary designs for Library 3 looked great, and definitely promising. Around that time, they decided to form a coalition shareware company. Drew Hamlin joined in with a promising new version of Typeset, and the new company was bound to be named MAD Softworks (MAD stood for Mike Andrew Drew). I was convinced that it was a dumb idea to have a "coalition company" like MAD, maybe I was right. Library 3 was going to need a lot of development work, and so Matas brought in a few friends from Omni. They decided to focus on one product, Library, and rename the company to Delicious Monster. And so began "Delicious Library"!