MacWise Evolution Timeline

MacWise Evolution Timeline
as of 10/15/22

MacWise began it's life as a Prism terminal emulator for Apple IIGS in 1988. But the name was originally not MacWise. It was PrismGS and was not yet a released product.
I wrote PrismGS using the AC/Basic programming language back in 1988 for my own personal use.

The timeline below shows the progression of my terminal emulators from PrismGS to MacToPic to MacToPic Plus to MacWise. There were many incremental versions in addition to what is shown here but these are the major releases. Thousands of hours of programming over a 30-year time span eventually added up to over 60,000 lines of code in MacWise.

Rich Love

1988

Wrote PrismGS for Apple IIGS using AC/Basic (not for sale)

PrismGS 1988 Video

1988
Ported PrismGS to MacPrism II on Macintosh using QuickBasic (not for sale)

Worked on this version for about a year in preparation for a consumer product.
Macs ran on 68000 series processors at this time.

MacPrism II 1988 Video

October 1989

Renamed MacPrism II to MacToPic (version 1.0)
( I discovered that another developer was already using the MacPrism name and therefore needed to change my app name).

This was the first product for sale.
The name, MacToPic alluded to the fact that it let Macs communicate with host computers running the PICK operating system.

This was before the internet and MacToPic was shipped by mail with 3.5 inch floppies and a printed manual.

This released version also used the MacToPicFont which I designed myself one pixel at a time using a program called Fontastic. This was necessary to support graphic drawing characters which use character fonts to display single and double lines for drawing boxes. This font was later renamed to MacWiseFont.

This version also added DEC VT101 and Viewpoint Emulation (a very minimal emulation in this first version)

MacToPic version 1 - 1989 Video

December 1989

Released MacToPic version 2

Added Wyse 50 emulation

June 1990

Released MacToPic Plus version 1.0

$295 per user
This first version of MacToPic Plus was built upon MacToPic version 2.52 and added the capability to display MacPaint Pictures under host control.
This photo of the box, manual and floppy disks shows the packaging for the product. It was the same packaging that was used for the original MacToPic in 1989 but added stickers showing that it was the plus version.

Spring 1992 Newsletter

Before the Internet, everything was mailed out by US Postage.
We used Pagemaker to create our newsletters.
This one promotes the new release of MacToPic and MacToPic Plus version 4.05
and mentions the new Powerbook 170, a PROC for transferring data and our award nomination.

1992_Spring_Newsletter

January 1993

Released MacToPic and MacToPic Plus version 5.0

Microsoft discontinued QuickBasic for Mac.
That forced me to port MacToPic from QuickBasic to Futurebasic
This was a huge project, taking months, with much of the code requiring a rewrite.

Sept 1993

Released MacToPic Plus version 6.0 with CommToolBox support
The CommToolBox was a major addition requiring months of programming.
The CommToolBox advantage was the ability to use third party communication tools as well as Apple Tools ( such tools as serial, modem, xmodem, ymodem and telnet)

MacToPic Plus version 6 - 1995 Video

June 1994

I created the Carnation Software web site using a text editor and html code.
Started selling MacToPic and MacToPic Plus on the web.
in 1995 I re-designed the web site using Adobe Pagemill

December 1994

MacToPic Plus version 7 released

Added Wyse 60 emulation

January 1996

MacWise version 1.0 released.
This was initially based upon MacToPic version 6 with no Host-To-Mac and Mac-To-Host data transfers. Also, did not support special host commands yet or Applescript.

MacWise Version 1 Video

November 1996

MacToPic Plus supports AppleScript

Another huge project to add AppleScript commands for the user to interact with the host and other Mac applications.

May 1997

MacToPic Plus version 8.3.0 released

Added Wyse 370 emulation

May 1997

MacWise version 2.2.0 released

Added Wyse 370 emulation

June 1997

MacToPic discontinued

August 2001

Version 9.3.2 was the last version of MacToPic Plus

September 2002

MacWise version 10 released

Compatible with OS X on PowerPC Macs
This upgrade required months of programming. It no longer used the CommToolBox as Apple discontinued it. MacWise version 4 was the last version to use the CommToolBox (there was no version 5 thru 9)

Now uses the Mac unix shell to make all connections to the host.

Added option to lock settings files for corporate users.

Added text data transfer (Host-To-Mac and Mac-To-Host) ported from MacToPic program.

Added Special Host Commands ported from MacToPic program.

Telnet and SSH Connections added.

May 2003

MacWise version 10.5

Applescript supported (all AppleScript commands ported from MacToPic Plus)

Feb 2004

MacWise version 4.4.2 was the last version of MacWise for OS 9 (Classic Macs)

MacWise Version 4.4.2 Demo

October 2004

MacToPic Plus discontinued

March 2008

MacWise version 11 released

Runs natively on Intel and PPC Macs. No more Rosetta. This was accomplished by converting the entire MacWise project from Basic to C using FBtoC.

This was another huge programming project requiring many months of work.

January 2009

MacWise version 11.58

French localization added.
All pull down menus and dialog boxes are now in French when the French keyboard has been selected in in the OSX keyboard preferences.

A lot of programming time went into this.
A fellow FutureBasic programmer, Alain Pastor, did all of the translations from English to French.

May 2010

MacWise version 12 released

Support screen saves and restores for hosts that use HostAccess and Accuterm PC emulation protocols

June 2012

MacWise version 14 released

Compatible with Mountain Lion

July 2015

MacWise version 15 released

Compatible with El Capitan

April 2017

MacWise version 16 released

Compatible with MacOS Sierra

Adds new 36-Point Font and larger window

September 2017

MacWise version 16.0.7 released

Compatible with MacOS High Sierra

Apple no longer includes Telnet with High Sierra. You must use Kermit with MacWise to get a telnet connection. A Kermit installer is now included with MacWise.

July 2018

MacWise version 17.0 Release

Compatible with MacOS Mojave

Apple stopped supporting bitmapped fonts in the Fonts folder.
MacWise now uses internal bitmapped fonts from it's own resource folder.

May 2019

MacWise version 19.0 Release

64-Bit version

In development for over a year, this 64-bit version of MacWise is working towards compatibility with future releases of Mac operating systems.

December 2019

MacWise version 20.0 Release

64-Bit version

Release for year 2020

September 2020

MacWise version 21.0

Early Release for year 2021

64-Bit universal version for Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

New MacWiseFont 2021 option for a slightly larger bolder font.

Unicode (UTF-8) supported for hosts that support NLS, National Language Support.
(International Characters Option).

September 2021

MacWise version 22.0

Compatible with MacOS Monterey and backwards compatible to Sierra.

This version adds the option to Use Char 12 form feeds when printing under host control
(aux / slave printing) allowing the server to control page ejects.

Fix hang when switching from 80 to 132 column mode.

More pleasing green color option.

version 23 is an early 2022 release.

September 2022

MacWise version 23.0

Compatible with MacOS Ventura

Flashing cursor function re-written for compatibility with Ventura.

Works with MacOS Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra and Sierra

Detailed version history of MacWise starting with version 10

MacWise version 23 history

MacWise version 22 history

MacWise version 21 history