Erwise

{{Infobox software

| name = Erwise

| logo =

| screenshot = Erwise5.jpg

| caption = Screenshot of the browser

| author =

| developer = Kim Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati Suominen, Kari Sydänmaanlakka{{Cite web|title=World Wide Web People – "Erwise" team|url=http://www.w3.org/People.html#9|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=15 June 2010|author=Henrik Frystyk Nielsen|author-link=Henrik Frystyk Nielsen|date=26 October 1999}}

| released = 0.1 / {{Start date and age|1992|04|15|df=yes}}

| latest release version = 0.1

| latest release date = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1994|04|25}}

| operating system =

| platform = Unix (Sun-4,{{Cite web|title=Comparison with ViolaWWW|url=http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/Erwise/Review.html|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=15 June 2010|author=Tim Berners-Lee|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee|date=29 April 1992}} NeXT/CubX, DEC Ultrix) using Motif

| language = English

| programming language = C

| genre = web browser

| license = Public Domain

| discontinued = yes

| website =

}}

Erwise is an early discontinued web browser, and the first that was available for the X Window System.{{Cite web|last=Holwerda|first=Thom|title=The World's First Graphical Browser: Erwise|url=http://www.osnews.com/story/21076/The_World_s_First_Graphical_Browser_Erwise|publisher=OSNews|access-date=15 June 2010|date=3 March 2009}}{{Cite web | url=http://cnlart.web.cern.ch/cnlart/2001/001/www-history/ | title=Cern Authentication}}

Released in April 1992, the browser was written for Unix computers running X and used the W3 common access library.{{Cite web|title=Computing at CERN in the 1990s|url=http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cnl/25822|publisher=cerncourier|access-date=15 June 2010|date=7 September 2006}} Erwise was the combined master's project of four Finnish students at the Helsinki University of Technology{{Cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html#browser|title=What were the first WWW browsers?|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|author=Tim Berners-Lee|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee|access-date=2010-06-15}} (now merged into Aalto University): Kim Nyberg, Teemu Rantanen, Kati Suominen and Kari Sydänmaanlakka.{{Cite news|url=http://www.xconomy.com/national/2009/03/03/the-greatest-internet-pioneers-you-never-heard-of-the-story-of-erwise-and-four-finns-who-showed-the-way-to-the-web-browser/ |title=The Greatest Internet Pioneers You Never Heard Of |newspaper=Xconomy |publisher=Xconomy.com |date= 3 March 2009|access-date=2010-06-15}} The group decided to make a web browser at the suggestion of Robert Cailliau, who was visiting the university,{{Cite web|first=Bill|last=Stewart|title=Web Browser History|url=http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_browse.htm|publisher=Living Internet|access-date=15 June 2010}} 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, 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.{{Cite web|title=Status of "Erwise" browser|url=http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Erwise/Status.html|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=15 June 2010}}{{Cite web|url=http://www2.hs.fi/klik/arkisto/2000helmikuu/20000210klik99erwise.html|title=Helsingin Sanomat|date=10 February 2000|access-date=2010-06-15|language=fi|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604122412/http://www2.hs.fi/klik/arkisto/2000helmikuu/20000210klik99erwise.html|archive-date=4 June 2011}}

Development

For the web to be popularized, Tim Berners-Lee knew that what people wanted was a GUI-based browser – one that could target multiple operating systems, and most importantly, be easy-to-use for the technologically challenged. At the time, personal computers were also confusing to some people that were not experienced with technology.

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 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.{{Cite book|last1=Gillies|first1=James|last2=Cailliau|first2=Robert|author-link2=Robert Cailliau|date=2000|title=How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pIH-JijUNS0C&pg=PA211|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=211|isbn=0-19-286207-3}}

Criticism

Erwise crashed on some versions of Unix, which Berners-Lee attributed to poor Motif implementations.{{Cite web|title=Viola and Erwise|url=http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/Erwise/vsViola.html|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium|access-date=15 June 2010|author=Tim Berners-Lee|author-link=Tim Berners-Lee}}