NPDS originally started out as the demo application nHTTPd and was authored as an article in the March 1997 develop magazine by Ray Rischpater*. nHTTPd was very limited but when I read the article I saw great potential for it so I began to code and experiment.
Quite soon (early July) I had a version of nHTTPd and one plugin (Notepad Server) that could serve simple Notes as web pages and that software was released to the delight of many Newton users.
Next came NPDS 1.51, a beefed up version of Notepad Server that began to hint at things to come.. Dates service, posting Notes from the Web, etc. Pen Computing wrote a small blurb about NPDS 1.51.
After many cycles of development and the contributions of many testers and users, NPDS 2.0 has emerged as the definitive handheld web server featured in a short piece in the March 1999 issue of WiReD magazine (p 150). We have certainly come a long way..
*Ray prefers to not answer questions about nHTTPd. He's bound by some Intellectual Property claims from doing so. I, on the other hand, will be glad to talk with you all you wish.