AlphaWindows

In the early 1990s the Display Industry Association (an industry consortium in California) defined a standard AlphaWindows that would allow a single CRT screen to implement multiple windows, each of which was to behave as a distinct computer terminal.cite web
url=http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal/alphawindows_news.txt
title="Alphawindows" -- a windowing setup for character-cell video terminals
author=Richard Shuford, ed] [citation
url=http://sw-eng.falls-church.va.us/itsg/P03V31.htm
title=Information Technology Standards Guidance — User Interface Services
publisher=U. S. Department of Defense
date=April 7, 1997
volume=3 of 14] Individual vendors offered products based on this in 1992cite web
url=http://www.cbronline.com/article_cg.asp?guid=3D06E828-77D2-4B6F-AB70-A0A8CA6A5E4E
title=First AlphaWindows Character-Based Terminals Set For To Appear in May, At From $600...
publisher=CBRonline.com
date=1992-02-14] [cite journal
url=http://anselmo.homeunix.net/SysAdmin-Journal/html/v01/i02/products.htm
title=Cumulus Technology Announces Support for New AlphaWindow Standard
author=New Products
journal=Sys Admin Magazine
date=July/August 1992] [cite web
url=http://www.cbronline.com/article_cg.asp?guid=7640A611-66EE-4F3E-B5CA-2A83F4E99CFC
title=Microvitec First Past Post in Europe with AlphaWindows Terminals; IBM OEM Pact in Prospect...
publisher=CBRonline.com
date=1992-08-12] and after,cite web
url=http://www.cbronline.com/article_cg_print.asp?guid=DC8B5C6D-E68F-44A8-AE7B-743E23F4A39E
title=Colour and Mono AlphaWindow Terminals from LINK
date=1993-08-25] through the end of the 1990s.

These products were targeted at a low-end market:

for users that don't need the processing power of a personal computer or the complexity of an X Window terminal, the AlphaWindow terminals and software provides the same look and feel of windows-based graphical user interfaces on an Alphanumeric terminal

The initial concept relied on custom (but low-cost) terminals which would support mouse interaction, (text) windowing support, and colored text.With that, plus special host software, the vendors proposed to support semi-graphical applications "transparently".

Organization

The Display Industry Association was at the same location as Cumulus Technology (the same street address in Palo Alto, CA). [cite web
url=http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~bam/toolnames.html
title=User Interface Software Tools
author=Brad Myers
date=March 1995] Cumulus was a manufacturer of displays since 1986. [cite web
url=http://www.cbronline.com/article_cg.asp?guid=F2C5CFD4-F12E-4CFA-B886-6613ADCF9E05
title=Cumulus Technology Wins Contract from Unisys
publisher=CBRonline.com
date=1988-01-18] cite web
url=http://infoventure.tsx.com/TSXVenture/TSXVentureHttpController?GetPage=CompanySummary&PO_ID=24082&HC_FLAG2=on
title=Company Summary — Cumulus Technology Ltd.
date=March 1994] Cumulus was heavily involved with development of the AlphaWindows standard.The members of the association in 1993 were, reading "/" as a partnership:

Only Cumulus was proposing both to develop the terminals and the host software.However, Cumulus did not survive — it went bankrupt. [cite web
url=http://raven.utc.edu/cgi-bin/WA.EXE?A2=ind9705c&L=hp3000-l&P=24722
title=Did Cumulus drop off the face of the earth, again?? (HP3000-L mailing list comment)
author=David Kallman
date=1997-05-21] [cite web
url=http://www.freelists.org/archives/ncolug/06-2006/msg00036.html
title=Small Box 'To End Digital Divide' (InterLUG mailing list comment)
author=Henry Keultjes
date=2005-05-04]

Software

JSB Software Technologies produced "MultiView Mascot".As noted in Unix Review: [cite web
url=http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=1262/urm9903b/
title=MultiView v. 4 — Breathing new life into old character-based UNIX applications is easier with MultiView.
author=Tim Parker
publisher=Unix Review
date=March 1999]

MultiView Mascot helps users access graphical applications, such as Web sites and e-mail systems, from a character-based browser. It does so by mapping graphical applications to a multiwindowed character system. Although there is the inevitable loss of graphics and formatting, the result is surprisingly workable. A hot-key feature allows any old character terminal to offer switching between multiple applications at the same time, with no programming required.

As of 2007, the product is owned by FutureSoft. [cite web
url=http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/8611/jsb-reports-record-revenues-increase.html?keywords=intranet
title=JSB reports record revenues increase
publisher=E-consultancy
date=2000-07-05] [cite web
url=http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/8876/surfcontrol-sells-off-multiview.html?keywords=intranet
title=SurfControl sells off MultiView
publisher=E-consultancy
date=2001-02-19]

SSSI (Structured Software Solutions, Inc.) produced the "FacetTerm" session multiplexer. [cite web
url=http://www.facetcorp.com/pr_facetwin1.1.html
title=Structured Software Solutions, Inc. Again Named to Fast Tech 50
publisher=FacetCorp
date=May 1996]

References

ee also

*X terminal