Unix Windowing Systems - Revision history

Waterpear: /* Early Competitors and Predecessors */ quick note about X10R3 being included with 4.3BSD in new.tar

2024-04-13T23:36:28Z

Early Competitors and Predecessors: quick note about X10R3 being included with 4.3BSD in new.tar

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:36, 13 April 2024
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	* CMU Andrew Window Manager		* CMU Andrew Window Manager
	* W (the predecessor to X)		* W (the predecessor to X)
	* prior versions of X (I~~'m aware X10R4~~ has ~~been~~ run in emulation)		* prior versions of X (I know andrew_w has run an Ultrix version X10R4 in emulation. The sources for X10R3 are in the 4.3BSD contrib area "new.tar" and there's a QVSS driver. It might be plausible to run it in simh too!)
	* mpx and mux from Research Unix 8/9		* mpx and mux from Research Unix 8/9
	* layers		* layers

Waterpear: /* MGR */ better screenshot, update on Linux experience

2024-02-09T15:34:54Z

MGR: better screenshot, update on Linux experience

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:34, 9 February 2024
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	=== MGR ===		=== MGR ===

	[[File:MGR~~-vgamono-freebsd2~~.png\|thumb\|~~Screenshot of the~~ MGR window system, ~~showing vi~~ and a ~~shell~~ session~~, running in 640x480 monochrome mode~~]]		[[File:MGR on VSTa 800x600.png\|thumb\|MGR window system, running on VSTa, demonstrating the "clock2", "walk", and "stringart" clients, as well as a MicroEMACS session]]

	MGR ("ManaGeR") was a window system written for the Sun-3 ~~(68k machines)~~. It saw some use as a lightweight alternative to SunView and X. It's notable in that the terminal emulator is located in the display server, and that graphics are accessed with terminal escape sequences. This means that it's well-suited for running a bunch of terminal windows, but ~~not for animations or video.~~ <ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>		MGR ("ManaGeR") was a window system written for the Sun-3 line of workstations. It saw some use as a lightweight alternative to SunView and X. It's notable in that the terminal emulator is located in the display server, and that graphics are accessed with terminal escape sequences. This means that it's well-suited for running a bunch of terminal windows, but graphics are slower<ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>.

	It's also network transparent~~; clients~~ can be run through any sort of terminal/telnet/modem line. This resembles the Blit, and apparently the Blit terminal from Bell Labs inspired MGR <ref>https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/unix/MGRMemories</ref>.		It's also network transparent. Clients can be run through any sort of terminal/telnet/modem line. This resembles the Blit, and apparently the Blit terminal from Bell Labs inspired MGR<ref>https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/unix/MGRMemories</ref>.

	MGR ~~apparently~~ saw lots of ports<ref>https://web.mit.edu/linux/redhat/redhat-4.0.0/i386/doc/HTML/ldp/MGR-HOWTO-2.html</ref>:		MGR saw lots of ports. At one point or another, it ran on<ref>https://web.mit.edu/linux/redhat/redhat-4.0.0/i386/doc/HTML/ldp/MGR-HOWTO-2.html</ref>:

	* Linux		* Linux
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	* Lynx		* Lynx

	The MGR 0.69 distribution claims to have support for SunOS 4.1.2, Linux 0.99.14, HP-UX 8.07, Coherent 4.0, and FreeBSD 2.0. ~~With~~ considerable massaging of the Makefiles, includes, and defines, the ~~640x480 monochrome VGA~~ server ~~builds and runs on FreeBSD 2.0. (The clients don~~'t ~~build, but MGR is useful without them.) Higher resolutions would probably be easier to attain in Linux. 800x600 is also known to work in VSTa~~.		The MGR 0.69 distribution claims to have support for SunOS 4.1.2, Linux 0.99.14, HP-UX 8.07, Coherent 4.0, and FreeBSD 2.0. The 640x480 monochrome server and the clients build easily on Red Hat Linux 4 (not RHEL 4), but trying to specify any sort of Super VGA card or resolution seems to permanently break the build. FreeBSD 2.0 requires considerable massaging of the Makefiles, includes, and defines to produce a build of the server, so it isn't recommended.

	Other ways to get this running:		Other ways to get this running:
	* Emulating the original platform (Sun-3) is possible with TME, but ~~that~~'s a hassle.		* Emulating the original platform (Sun-3) is <i>possible</i> with TME, but it's a hassle to get TME running.
	* There's MC Widerkrantz's Solaris port<ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>, which QEMU might be able to run.		* There's MC Widerkrantz's Solaris port<ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>, which QEMU might be able to run.
	* andrew_w on the Discord has a disk image with a VSTa port of MGR, which ~~apparently~~ runs well in 86Box		* andrew_w on the Discord has a disk image with a VSTa port of MGR, which runs well in 86Box.
	* ~~Someone ported MGR~~ to ~~run on top of~~ X ~~a decade ago~~<ref>https://github.com/hyc/mgr</ref>~~. Practical but boring~~.		* There appears to be X support in this Github repo<ref>https://github.com/hyc/mgr</ref>.

	Finally, given how portable MGR has proven to be, it might be feasible to forward-port it to the modern Linux framebuffer.		Finally, given how portable MGR has proven to be, it might be feasible to forward-port it to the modern Linux framebuffer.

Waterpear: /* MGR */ add screenshot and mention that the FreeBSD build kinda sorta works

2024-02-08T03:36:22Z

MGR: add screenshot and mention that the FreeBSD build kinda sorta works

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:36, 8 February 2024
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	=== MGR ===		=== MGR ===

			[[File:MGR-vgamono-freebsd2.png\|thumb\|Screenshot of the MGR window system, showing vi and a shell session, running in 640x480 monochrome mode]]

	MGR ("ManaGeR") was a window system written for the Sun-3 (68k machines). It saw some use as a lightweight alternative to SunView and X. It's notable in that the terminal emulator is located in the display server, and that graphics are accessed with terminal escape sequences. This means that it's well-suited for running a bunch of terminal windows, but not for animations or video. <ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>		MGR ("ManaGeR") was a window system written for the Sun-3 (68k machines). It saw some use as a lightweight alternative to SunView and X. It's notable in that the terminal emulator is located in the display server, and that graphics are accessed with terminal escape sequences. This means that it's well-suited for running a bunch of terminal windows, but not for animations or video. <ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>
Line 40:		Line 42:
	* Lynx		* Lynx

	~~Ways~~ to get this running:		The MGR 0.69 distribution claims to have support for SunOS 4.1.2, Linux 0.99.14, HP-UX 8.07, Coherent 4.0, and FreeBSD 2.0. With considerable massaging of the Makefiles, includes, and defines, the 640x480 monochrome VGA server builds and runs on FreeBSD 2.0. (The clients don't build, but MGR is useful without them.) Higher resolutions would probably be easier to attain in Linux. 800x600 is also known to work in VSTa.

			Other ways to get this running:
	* Emulating the original platform (Sun-3) is possible with TME, but that's a hassle.		* Emulating the original platform (Sun-3) is possible with TME, but that's a hassle.
	* There's MC Widerkrantz's Solaris port<ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>, which QEMU might be able to run.		* There's MC Widerkrantz's Solaris port<ref>https://hack.org/mc/mgr/</ref>, which QEMU might be able to run.
	* andrew_w on the Discord has a disk image with a VSTa port of MGR, ~~though it doesn't handle~~ well in ~~modern versions of QEMU.~~		* andrew_w on the Discord has a disk image with a VSTa port of MGR, which apparently runs well in 86Box
	* Someone ported MGR to run on top of X a decade ago<ref>https://github.com/hyc/mgr</ref>. Practical but boring.		* Someone ported MGR to run on top of X a decade ago<ref>https://github.com/hyc/mgr</ref>. Practical but boring.

	It might ~~also~~ be feasible to forward-port ~~this~~ to the modern Linux framebuffer.		Finally, given how portable MGR has proven to be, it might be feasible to forward-port it to the modern Linux framebuffer.

	== Niche Window Systems ==		== Niche Window Systems ==

Waterpear: preliminary write-up of MGR

2024-02-05T16:55:05Z

preliminary write-up of MGR

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 * layers
 * the UNIX PC window system
 == Niche Window Systems ==

Waterpear: quick WIP writeup on window

2024-02-04T16:08:49Z

quick WIP writeup on window

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:08, 4 February 2024
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	* BSD window(1)		* BSD window(1)
	* the A/UX window system		* the A/UX window system

			=== BSD window ===

			window(1) is a terminal multiplexer that offers overlapping windows on ordinary character cell terminals. It was introduced in 4.3BSD, and survived long enough to make it into the modern BSD systems for a bit. All of them have since jettisoned it in favor of tmux. Its last appearance was in NetBSD 6.1<ref>https://man.netbsd.org/NetBSD-6.1.5/window.1</ref>.

			The NetBSD version of window was archived into pkgsrc <ref>https://github.com/NetBSD/pkgsrc/tree/trunk/misc/window</ref>. The terminal emulation isn't ANSI-compliant, and there's no terminfo definition on non-NetBSD platforms (at least not on macOS). Compatibility with modern fancy shell prompts and TUI software is limited; Neofetch in particular emits sludge.

			TODO: a good screenshot

			TODO: build/install instructions for non-NetBSD (could probably make a fork/distribution with a terminfo definition)

	== Novelties ==		== Novelties ==
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	* Y Window System		* Y Window System
	* Orbital		* Orbital

			== References ==
			<references />

	[[Category:Preservation and Documentation]]		[[Category:Preservation and Documentation]]
	[[Category:Projects]]		[[Category:Projects]]

Waterpear: create skeleton: list and categorize

2024-02-04T15:47:46Z

create skeleton: list and categorize

New page

The phrase "windowing system for Unix" is nearly synonymous with X11 and, increasingly, Wayland. While X11 has dominated the Unix window system market for decades, it has coexisted with many others over the years. Some of them were early competitors that fell by the wayside, others filled niches that X was unable to, and still others are just fun little things someone made for fun or for a school project.

This project has three aims:
* Gather information about these alternative window systems
* Bring them up under emulation, where possible
* Preserve them by porting them to modern operating systems, where practical

== Early Competitors and Predecessors ==
* ManaGeR (MGR)
* SunView
* NeWS / OpenWindows
* NeXT Display PostScript
* PERQ PNX / Sapphire
* HP Windows/9000
* CMU Andrew Window Manager
* W (the predecessor to X)
* prior versions of X (I'm aware X10R4 has been run in emulation)
* mpx and mux from Research Unix 8/9
* layers
* the UNIX PC window system

== Niche Window Systems ==
* Xynth/XFast
* QNX Windows
* QNX Photon
* QNX screen
* RockLyte Athene
* Maryland Windows
* BSD window(1)
* the A/UX window system

== Novelties ==
* Twin
* Y Window System
* Orbital

[[Category:Preservation and Documentation]]
[[Category:Projects]]