 Caldera DR-WebSpyder with on-screen keyboard in 1998 | |
| Other names | Embrowser |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Caldera UK,Caldera Thin Clients |
| Initial release | 1997; 28 years ago (1997) |
| Stable release | 2.5 / October 1999; 25 years ago (1999-10) |
| Operating system | DOS |
| Type | Web browser |
DR-WebSpyder is aDOSweb browser,mail client and operating systemruntime environment that was developed byCaldera UK[1] in 1997. It was based on theDR-DOS operating system and networking components fromNovell as well as theArachne web browser byMichal Polák ofxChaos software. The system was designed to run on low-enddesktop systems, but being able to boot and execute from disk as well as fromROM ornetwork, it was also tailored for x86-basedthin clients andembedded systems with or without disk drives. Using the web browser as its principal user interface,[2] it could be also used forkiosk systems andset-top boxes. It was ported toLinux in 1999 under the nameEmbrowser and was renamedEmbedix Browser in 2000.
DR-WebSpyder was originally conceived as project NIOS (Novell Internet Operating System[clarification needed]) at Novell's European Development Centre (EDC), UK in 1994 by thenDR-DOS engineer Roger Alan Gross, who was working onNovell's Embedded Systems Technology (NEST) initiative to create embedded system applications that connect intelligent devices toNetWare networks. NIOS was conceived as a thin client operating system that provided Novell with a graphical client operating system to run web applications hosted on NetWare, creating a Novell-centric platform forsoftware as a service (SaaS) that did not requireMicrosoft'sWindows operating system. NIOS comprised 32-bit versions of Novell's existing 16-bit DOS technologies including the DR-DOS operating system, Novell'smodem dialer andTCP/IP stack fromLAN Workplace for DOS /NetWare Mobile plus licensed third-party components such as theKaffeJava virtual machine (JVM),Allegro for graphics, andMosaic for the web browser.[clarification needed]
Gross's plans were interrupted whenCaldera, Inc. acquired the remainingDigital Research assets including DR-DOS from Novell on 23 July 1996, but without the personnel.[3][4] Gross telephoned Caldera'sRansom H. Love the same day offering to set up a new DR-DOS team outside of Novell. Gross subsequently joined Caldera as general manager of theDigital Research Systems Group (DSG) in December that year and set about rehiring the DRDOS/NIOS team in the UK[1] to develop the new operating system and web browser. Under Caldera, NIOS was renamed IOS (Internet Operating System). The plan to use Mosaic was also dropped and instead Caldera licensed the source code of the 16-bit DOS web browserArachne.[5][6] The team replaced Arachne's dialer andpacket drivers with Novell's dialer, ODI driver suite (fromPersonal NetWare etc.) andTCP/IP stack,[6] added support foranimated andscaled GIFs,[6] an optionalon-screen keyboard for mouse and touch panel usage (SoftKeyboards) for possible keyboardless operation,[6] and an install program.[6] Also, they completely changed the design of the browser (customizablechrome), implemented support forNetScape-compatibleframes, and used Allegro for graphics. The browser also supported "execute links" to run and interact with DOS programs and batchjobs run on theweb client,[7] a feature originally introduced asDOS Gateway Interface (DGI) in Arachne. IOS became formally known asWebSpyder in May 1997.[2][8][9] Some months later, it was ported to compile as a 32-bitprotected modeextended DOS application (utilizingDPMI usingDJGPP, a GNU compiler for DOS), then referred to asWebSpyder 32,[10] but renamedDR-WebSpyder in early 1998.
On 11 May 1998, Caldera started shipping DR-WebSpyder 2.0[11][12][13][7] as both aHTML 3.2 web browser application andbrowser OS.[7][14] On 1 June 1998, the company opened a sales and support office in Taiwan[15] to be close to potentialOEM customers.
A maintenance release DR-WebSpyder 2.0a was issued on 19 August 1998.[16]
Caldera distributed a free demo version of DR-WebSpyder 2.0a on aself-booting disk.[17][18][14] This was in fact the DR-WebSpyder OS configured as loosely coupled components in which a special version of the DR-DOSANSI.SYS driver would mute the stream of text messages at startup of the DOS system[nb 1] while a graphical company logo was displayed until the web browser was launched as ashell viaCONFIG.SYS SHELL replacing the defaultCOMMAND.COM command line interpreter.[nb 2] On386 PCs with a minimum of 4 MB of RAM,[7] the floppy would boot theDR-DOS 7.02 based browser operating system complete with memory manager,RAM disk, dial-up modem, LAN, mouse and display drivers and automatically launch into the graphical browser, without ever touching the machine'shard disk in order not to interfere with other systems installed on the machine and to demonstrate its potential usage indiskless workstations.[17] Users could start browsing the web or accessing mails immediately after entering their access credentials. A further refined international revision of the demo by Matthias R. Paul utilized more sophisticated multi-level compression to free enough space on the floppy image to also include menu options and additional drivers to choose between several languages and keyboard layouts and give room for further expansion or customization of the operation system and browser through OEMs or users.
On 2 September 1998, it was announced that the Digital Research Systems Group and consequently also Caldera UK was spun out as a separate companyCaldera Thin Clients (CTC),[19] incorporated earlier in August 1998.
In September 1998, DR-WebSpyder 2.0 achieved commercial success when it was selected for use in an internetset-top box as part of asatellite internet access solution.[20][21][22]
On 3 November 1998, the company announced DR-WebSpyder 2.1.[23] With DR-WebSpyder 2.1 Beta 2 being available since 7 November 1998,[24] the browser was released on 30 November 1998.[25] It added support forJavaScript, theSecure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol,cookies, sound files, printing on a multitude of printers as well as user profiles and support for multiple mail accounts.[26] It also added scrollablequarter-screen VGA support for low-resolutionLCD displays as well asanti-aliasedfonts for display onTVs in an optional TV interface mode.[23][25][26]
Caldera UK also investigated possibilities to addJava[14] andJVM support to the browser, but this component never left prototype status.[22][27] Two desired prerequisites for Java integration were to add support forlong filenames (LFNs)[nb 3][28] andUnicode to DOS.[29] Caldera'sDPMS-enabled dynamically loadableLONGNAME driver providedVFAT-compatible LFNs in theFAT file system utilizingUCS-2 internally. Matthias R. Paul conducted research how to achieve this with minimal changes to the existing system and to not cause bloat to an operating system also tailored for thin clients and embedded systems. Expanded DRFONT-style .CPI files could have been provided to retrieve bitmaps for the required larger character repertoire (Basic Multilingual Plane orWindows Glyph List 4) not only to support a lot morecode pages in general,[29][30][31] but also widercharacter sets similar to what was used inDOS/V-compatible systems.[32] In conjunction with a new COUNTRY.SYS file,[33] Paul's enhancedNLSFUNC 4.xx driver,[29][33][34] which was introduced with DR-DOS 7.02,[29][35] could have provided the framework to integrate optionalUTF-8 support into the system in a way similar toDBCS support.[36]
When Gross resigned in January 1999, Caldera Thin Clients, Inc. closed the Caldera UK Ltd. development office in February 1999 soon after the release ofDR-DOS 7.03.[27][37]
On 20 July 1999, Caldera Thin Clients renamed itself intoLineo under the new lead ofBryan Wayne Sparks.[38][39] DR-WebSpyder was renamedEmbrowser and the browser was said to be ported toLinux.[38][39]
A version of DR-WebSpyder forIMSREAL/32, a successor to Digital Research's and Novell'sMultiuser DOS, has been worked on in 1999 as well.[40]
Since October 1999, a DOS version of DR-WebSpyder 2.5 aka Embrowser 2.5 was available on Lineo's site.[41]
Since Lineo's own thin-client Linux distribution was namedEmbedix, the Linux port of the micro web browser was consequently namedEmbedix Browser by April 2000.[42][43]
In April 2002, some Lineo assets were auctioned off and the company reformed asEmbedix, Inc. by July 2002 under the lead of Matthew R. Harris.[44]Motorola'sMetrowerks bought Embedix key assets, possibly including the browser[clarification needed], on 17 December 2002.[45][46][47]
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ESC [ + andESC [ - to disable and reenable any output to theCON: device are supported byANSI.SYS ofDR-DOS 7.02 and higher only. They are used to mute the console output during boot, for example in conjunction with DR-WebSpyderboot floppies.[…] The only existing solution which would allow to store an almost unlimited number of codepages without unnecessary bloating is theDR DOS 6.0+ DRFONT .CPI file format, which adds one level of indirection by using a 16-bit character lookup table, and thereby helps to significantly cut down the file size. It also allows to specify ranges, but this feature is not currently used because the resulting .CPI files are still small enough. Worth mentioning is that the 16-bit lookup table suits perfectly to be extended toUnicode. […]
[…] outline of the support in the video driver ((NB. Has screenshots of a DBCS-enabled version ofViewMAX running onDR DOS 6.0/V and ahex dump of the corresponding DRFONT databaseSDJVG9.VGA) […] At startup, it callsINT 15h/AX=5000hto get the address of theDOS/V 'read font' function. If […] present, it sets a […]DBCS […] flag on the system font. […] it usesINT 21h/AX=6507hto get the DBCS lead byte table. When a string is passed to […] text output functions, if a DBCS font is in use and the DBCS lead byte table is loaded, the code checks for DBCS lead/trail bytes in the string passed to it, and combines each pair into a 16-bit character ID. When drawing a character, it checks to see if the character ID is above 256. If so, it calls the DOS/V 'read font' function to get that character's bitmap, and instructs the drawing code to draw 16 pixels from offset 0 of that bitmap, rather than 8 pixels from the system font bitmap at a given offset. There are similar checks in the optimised monospaced text drawing code, allowing characters to be 8 or 16 pixels wide.
SCREENHZ.FNT for its$FONT.SYS.[…]UTF-8 […] is most interesting […] in bringing Unicode to DOS, as adding support for UTF-8 to an application is very similar to adding support forDBCS. I think, when making an application DBCS aware, UTF-8 should be taken into account at the same time for laterUnicode support. […][14]
caldera.com from1996-10-18 to1999-04-30)caldera.co.uk from1997-12-21 to1999-10-12)calderathin.com from1999-01-17 to1999-11-05) andLineo, Inc. (archived web sitecalderathin.com from1999-10-12 to1999-11-05,lineo.com from2000-05-10 to2003-03-20 andembedix.com from2002-06-03 to2003-02-20)