Interchange (software)
Encyclopedia
Interchange is a free and open source e-commerce web application server
and platform written in Perl
. Its primary use is building customized e-commerce
and catalog solutions.
It is a descendant of Vend, an e-commerce system originally developed by Andrew Wilcox in early 1995. Mike Heins took the first publicly-released version, Vend 0.2, and added searching and DBM catalog storage to create MiniVend. Mike released MiniVend 0.2m7 on December 28, 1995. In 2000, ecommerce startup Akopia acquired Mike's consultancy, Internet Robotics, hired him, and merged its product, Tallyman, with MiniVend, to create Interchange. (Tallyman was a GPL'd web framework written in Perl and Embperl, backed by Oracle or PostgreSQL.)
In 2001, Akopia was acquired by Red Hat
. Within a few years, Red Hat had tightened its focus on Enterprise Linux
and ended its involvement with Interchange, which is now maintained by its community of developers, including ex-Akopia employees, most of whom still make a living doing Interchange development.
Application server
An application server is a software framework that provides an environment in which applications can run, no matter what the applications are or what they do...
and platform written in Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
. Its primary use is building customized e-commerce
Electronic commerce
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, eCommerce or e-comm, refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. However, the term may refer to more than just buying and selling products online...
and catalog solutions.
It is a descendant of Vend, an e-commerce system originally developed by Andrew Wilcox in early 1995. Mike Heins took the first publicly-released version, Vend 0.2, and added searching and DBM catalog storage to create MiniVend. Mike released MiniVend 0.2m7 on December 28, 1995. In 2000, ecommerce startup Akopia acquired Mike's consultancy, Internet Robotics, hired him, and merged its product, Tallyman, with MiniVend, to create Interchange. (Tallyman was a GPL'd web framework written in Perl and Embperl, backed by Oracle or PostgreSQL.)
In 2001, Akopia was acquired by Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
. Within a few years, Red Hat had tightened its focus on Enterprise Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and ended its involvement with Interchange, which is now maintained by its community of developers, including ex-Akopia employees, most of whom still make a living doing Interchange development.