W history
Torsten Scherer (TeSche) starts W in 1994 because X is too heavy under
MiNT... The goals were: W should be lightweight and easy to program
graphics window system, use client-server model and be able to run
WTerm, Wload, WClock and simple games. Torsten achieved these goals
admirably, I'd say! :-)
New W 1 features (Dec -94)
- Use sockets instead of named pipes.
- Kay Römer (MiNT networking support / library author) joins
the development team.
New W 1 Release 2 features (Dec -95)
- SunOS and m68k Linux support.
- Bug fixes and lots of modifications to the W.
- Buffered socket communications. Speeds up things quite a lot.
- Stuff not totally inside a window is discarded for safety.
- New font scheme with support for proportional fonts.
- Faster background window updating (only 'dirty' area).
- Eero Tamminen joins the team.
- Lots of new fonts.
- New source layout.
New W 1 Release 3 features (Feb -96)
- Preliminary Amiga NetBSD support.
- Graphics contexts (TeSche).
- Convex polygons (Kay).
- Clipping for graphics functions (Kay).
- Faster patterned graphics functions (Eero).
- Basic widget toolkit library functionality on top of Wlib (Kay).
- Unlimited number of windows, sub windows (for the toolkit)
and window gadgets (TeSche & Kay).
- 'Proper' manual pages instead of the ASCII ones (TeSche).
W1R4-beta features
- Preliminary x86 Linux support (Torsten).
- Get/putblock functions can now do most mono<->color conversions
either in W server or library (TeSche & Eero).
- Support for user settable colors (TeSche).
- Experimental window resizing (TeSche).
- Ellipse and bezier functions (Eero).
- Graphics modes to the pattern functions (Eero).
- Better support for the W toolkit in Wlib (TeSche).
- Basic widgets for the W Toolkit (Kay & Eero).
- HTML 1.0 conforming WWW-Browser and an enhanced W terminal (Kay).
Unofficial W 1 Release 4 by Eero (97/98)
- Graphics modes for patterned graphics routines.
- BMONO monochrome driver for x86-linux/svaglib. DIRECT8
driver works now with svgalib too.
- Arc and pie functions.
- Incomplete and crude line width support.
- Server fonts and font path can be set in configuration file.
- New font format offering more information about the font.
- w_init() returs defaults for font family and size.
- New text styles (bold, 'italic' (slanted), light).
- Completed bitmap format conversions (no palette conversion).
- PBM (Portable BitMap) read/write functions.
- A couple of new utilities and games.
- Updated Wlib manual pages.
- Wlib emulation library for X11.
I haven't been able to contact TeSche since June/97 :-(.
There are still a lot of things on the TODO list...
For more complete description of the changes between different versions,
see the CHANGES file(s).
Authors' W development systems:
Besides these there are of course machines at the university (and work?)
and at friends.
Torsten Scherer (1996)
- Atari TT (32MHz m68030).
- 19" monochrome monitor.
- OS: m68k-Linux.
Kay Römer (1996)
- Atari MegaSTe.
- ?
- OS: MiNT.
Eero Tamminen (1996/1998)
- Atari ST (8MHz m68000) 4/32MB.
- 12" monochrome monitor.
- OS: MiNT.
- Intel P133, 32MB/2GB.
- Matrox Millenium / 15" color monitor.
- OS: Linux (slightly patched v2.0.28).
- STonX ST emulator for testing big endianess.
No, I don't have Windows® at as home I don't trust product for which
there's no source available.
Eero Tamminen, puujalka@modeemi.cs.tut.fi