Erwise is a discontinued pioneering

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used o ...

, and the first available with a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...

. Released in April 1992, the browser was written for

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

computers running X and used the W3 common access library. Erwise was the combined master's project of four

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

students at the

Helsinki University of Technology Helsinki University of Technology (TKK; fi, Teknillinen korkeakoulu; sv, Tekniska högskolan) was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the metropolitan area of Greater Helsinki. The university was founded in ...

(now merged into

Aalto University Aalto University ( fi, Aalto-yliopisto; sv, Aalto-universitetet) is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the ...

): Kim Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati Suominen and Kari Sydänmaanlakka. The group decided to make a web browser at the suggestion of

Robert Cailliau Robert Cailliau (, born 26 January 1947) is a Belgian informatics engineer, computer scientist and author who proposed the first (pre-www) hypertext system for CERN in 1987 and collaborated with Tim Berners-Lee on the World Wide Web (jointly wi ...

, who was visiting the university, and were supervised by Ari Lemmke. The development of Erwise halted after the students graduated and went on to other projects. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web ...

, travelled to Finland to encourage the group to continue with the project. However, none of the project members could afford to continue with the project without proper funding. The name ''Erwise'' originates from ''otherwise'' and the name of the project group, ''OHT''.

Development

For the web to be popularized, Tim Berners-Lee knew that what people wanted was a

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

-based browser - one that could target multiple

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

s, and most importantly, be easy-to-use for the technologically-challenged. At the time,

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

s were also confusing to some people that were not experienced with

technology Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and Reproducibility, reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in me ...

History

* Extremely pre-documented (in Finnish). * Serious coding started around March 1992. * Alpha release available by anonymous FTP from info.cern.ch—binaries only (sun4 works, decstation too, display requires Motif) as of 15 April 1992. * Source code released on www-talk August 92.

Characteristics

The following are significant characteristics of the browser: * It used a multi-font text. * The links of Erwise browser were underlined. To visit the links you had to

double click A double-click is the act of pressing a computer mouse button twice quickly without moving the mouse. Double-clicking allows two different actions to be associated with the same mouse button. It was developed by Bill Atkinson of Apple Computer ( ...

on the links. * Erwise could execute multiple window operation, though the optional single window mode was also available. * Erwise could open local files. * Erwise had little English documentation. * Some of the buttons were for features that were not implemented. * Tim Berners-Lee would have continued with the works of Erwise. He could not do so because Erwise's code was documented in the Finnish language.

Criticism

Erwise crashed on some versions of

, which Berners-Lee attributed to poor Motif implementations.

References

Sources

* Berners-Lee, Tim: ''Weaving the Web'' .

External links

The source code
at

FUNET FUNET is the Finnish University and Research Network, a backbone network providing Internet connections for Finnish universities and polytechnics as well as other research facilities. It is governed by the state-owned CSC – IT Center for Sc ...

FTP archives {{Web browsers 1992 software Discontinued web browsers Finnish inventions Free software programmed in C History of the Internet POSIX web browsers Public-domain software with source code Software developed in Finland