Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 28, 2026

W Window System

The W Window System, or simply W, is a discontinued windowing system and precursor, in name and concept, to the modern X Window System.

Last revised
May 28, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
167 w
Citations
2
Source
W Window System
Original authorsPaul Asente, Brian Reid
DeveloperStanford University
Operating systemV operating system
SuccessorX Window System
TypeWindowing system

The W Window System, or simply W, is a discontinued windowing system and precursor, in name and concept, to the modern X Window System.

W was originally developed at Stanford University by Paul Asente and Brian Reid for the V operating system. In 1983, Paul Asente and Chris Kent ported the system to UNIX on the VS100, giving a copy to those working at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science.1

In 1984, Bob Scheifler of MIT replaced the synchronous protocol of W with an asynchronous alternative and named the result X.2

Since this time, the X window system has gone through many fundamental changes and no longer bears any significant resemblance to W.

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Scheifler, Robert W.; Gettys, Jim (April 1986). "The X window system". ACM Transactions on Graphics. 5 (2): 79–109. doi:10.1145/22949.24053. hdl:1721.1/149636. ISSN 0730-0301. S2CID 18458549.
  2. "Talisman: Debut of X". www.talisman.org. Retrieved 2022-05-30.