W Window System

{{Short description|Discontinued windowing system}}

{{Infobox software

| name = W Window System

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| author = Paul Asente, Brian Reid

| developer = Stanford University

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| replaced_by = X Window System

| operating system = V operating system

| genre = Windowing system

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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.{{Cite journal |last1=Scheifler |first1=Robert W. |last2=Gettys |first2=Jim |date=April 1986 |title=The X window system |journal=ACM Transactions on Graphics |language=en |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=79–109 |doi=10.1145/22949.24053 |s2cid=18458549 |issn=0730-0301|doi-access=free }}

In 1984, Bob Scheifler of MIT replaced the synchronous protocol of W with an asynchronous alternative and named the result X.{{Cite web |title=Talisman: Debut of X |url=https://www.talisman.org/x-debut.shtml |access-date=2022-05-30 |website=www.talisman.org}}

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