Re: Ancient w3 browsers

Hi. Always great to meet a fellow web history buff...

I'm struggling to find source code for that X11 browser from the Convex
days. When Jim first asked me about it, I didn't remember doing it at all,
but I found some status reports to my manager at Convex, and sure enough, I
did report building something like that. Ah... here's a message to TimBL:

----
To: timbl@nxoc01.cern.ch (Tim Berners-Lee)
Subject: X/motif browser status
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 91 22:34:18 CST
From: connolly@pixel.convex.com


The AVS help system is all but finished.

I went back tonight and tried browsing WWW files.
My html2rtf converter is still a little rusty, but
other than that, it works well.

Features I've implemented since I last wrote you:

* multiple fonts (with menu options for changing them)
* colored text
* full color raster images

I've been considering the idea of building this thing on a Sparc
and sending you the binary for evaluation. I _might_ have time
before the end of the year. Would you have time to look at it?
Is it worth bothering, considering we don't have an agreement
about the source?

I used to keep up on the hypertext newsgroups, WWW, and WAIS mailing
lists, but for about two months now, I've been too busy. The AVS project
is winding down. I should be able to start thinking about using WWW or
WAIS technology (or both) some time soon.

Keep in touch.

Dan
----

I know I got a copy of my files (on a tape!) when I left Convex, and I
copied them to a zip drive at one point. Unfortunately, I don't recall
where I put the zip drive.

As to FineWWW, I expect others here in the Web History Community Group know
better than I do.

Continued good luck with your search...

-- 
Dan



On Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 10:48 AM Edmund Tweedy Flanigan <e.flanigan@lmu.de>
wrote:

> Hi Dan
>
> I’m working on an archive of the earliest Web browsers, which you may have
> heard about a couple of weeks ago via Jim Whitescarver (who I’ve been in
> touch with). I’m on the hunt for early versions of early browsers, which
> are at risk of being lost as FTP servers continue to be taken offline.
>
> I’m also looking in particular for a couple of possibly “lost” browsers,
> including the X11 browser you were working on while an employee of Convex.
> Do you happen to have a copy of that browser, or know where one might be
> found? I realize it’s a long shot (I know you uploaded a version of
> MidasWWW, so I figure you might have done so already if you had the source
> to your own browser as well) but I thought it was worth asking!
>
> I’m also on the lookout for Jim’s w3 browser and Tom Fine’s FineWWW, if
> you’ve seen those anywhere or happen to have them kicking around on an old
> drive. Additionally, I’m holding out hope that the sources for Nicola
> Pellow and Robert Cailliau’s Mac browser might still be held somewhere,
> alongside pre-1.0 versions of mosaic, pre-0.8 versions of tkWWW, pre-2.0
> versions of Viola, and any version of LineMode before 0.11.
>
> Here’s the archive at present:
> http://9p.sdf.org/who/tweedy/ancient_browsers
>
> Many thanks in advance for your help!
>
> Best wishes,
> Tweedy Flanigan



-- 
Dan Connolly
http://www.madmode.com/