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== History ==
===Solutions for heterogeneous environments===
By the end of 1990 [[Windows 3.0]] was the top selling software. The various graphical Windows applications had already started to reduce training time and enhance productivity on personal computers. At the same time various Unix and Unix-based operating systems dominated technical workstations and departmental servers. The idea of a consistent application environment across heterogeneous environments was compelling to both enterprise customers and software developers.
On May 5, 1993 [[Sun Microsystems]] announced [[Windows Application Binary Interface]] (WABI), a product to run Windows software on Unix, and the Public Windows Interface (PWI) initiative, a effort to standardize a subset of the popular 16-bit Windows API's.<ref name="SunFlash">{{cite web
| url = http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux/msg/0a7c3867abdb4a76
| title = SunFLASH Vol 53: Sun Introduces Wabi - Allows MS-Windows Apps To Run Under UNIX
| month = May
| year = 1993
| publisher = [[Sun Microsystems|SunFlash (Newsletter)]]
}}</ref> They proposed PWI to various companies and organizations including [[X/Open]], [[IEEE]] and [[Unix International]].<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Cheryl Gerber
| date = May 10, 1993
| title = Sun unveils Windows for RISC plans
| journal = InfoWorld
| page = 8
| publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
}}</ref> The previous day, Microsoft had announced [[SoftPC]] a Windows to Unix product created by [[Insignia Solutions]] as part of a program where Microsoft licensed their Windows source code to select third-parties, which in the following year became known as [[Windows Interface Source Environment]] (WISE). Later that month Microsoft also announced [[Windows NT]], a version of Windows designed to run on Workstations and Servers.<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Bob Metcalfe
| date = June 7, 1993
| title = Is OS cross-dressing too good to be true?
| journal = InfoWorld
| page = 52
| publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
}}</ref>
===ECMA gets involved===
In February 1994 the PWI Specification Committee sent a draft specification to [[X/Open]] --who rejected it in March, after being threatened by Microsoft's assertion of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) over the Windows APIs<ref>{{cite web
| title = X/OPEN NOT TO TAKE MANAGEMENT OF THE PUBLIC WINDOWS INITIATIVE
| date = March 30, 1994
| publisher = [[Computer Business Review]]
}}</ref>-- and the [[Ecma International|European Computer Manufacturers' Association]] (ECMA) . In September, now part of a ECMA delegation, they made a informational presentation about the project at the ISO SC22 plenary meeting in the The Hague, Netherlands.<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Rob Farnum
| year = 1996
| month = June
| title = Applications Programming Interface for Windows: A Timely Standard
| journal = StandardView
| volume = 4
| number = 2
| pages = 100-102
}}</ref> Their goal was to make it a [[International Organization for Standardization|ISO]] standard in order to force Microsoft to comply with it (in Windows) or risk not being able sell to European or Asian governments who can only buy ISO standards compliant products.<ref>{{cite journal
| author = Martin LanMonica
| date = December 18, 1995
| title = Group back Windows spec
| journal = InfoWorld
| page = 16
| publisher = InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
}}</ref>
In April 1995, [[Willows Software, Inc.]] (formally Multiport, Inc.<ref>{{cite web
| title = CORSAIR EFFORT TO BECOME INTERNET OPERATING SYSTEM
| date = March 17, 1995
| publisher = [[Computer Business Review]]
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| url = http://www.computerwoche.de/heftarchiv/1995/26/1115269/
| title = Corsair Desktop mit Linux-Kern
| trans_title = Corsair Desktop Linux kernel
| date = June 30, 1995
| publisher = [[Computerwoche]]
}}</ref>) a company that had been working on Windows to Unix technologies (inherited from then defunct [[Hunter Systems, Inc.]]<ref>{{cite web
| title = HUNTER'S PERSONAL COMPUTER APPLICATIONS UNDER UNIX TECHNOLOGY RE-EMERGES AT MULTIPORT
| date = July 8, 1993
| publisher = [[Computer Business Review]]
}}</ref>) since early 1993, joined the ad hoc ECMA group. This group became Technical Committee 37 in August. (About the time [[Windows 95]] was released) Willows vowed to finish the standard by mid October. On October 1995 the draft specification was completed under the name Application Programming Interface for Windows (APIW). This was accepted as ECMA-234 in December and was put on the fast-track program to become a ISO standard.<ref name="Cargill">{{cite journal
| author = Carl Cargill
| year = 1997
| month = December
| title = Section 2. Sun and Standardization Wars
| journal = StandardView
| volume = 5
| number = 4
| pages = 133-135
}}</ref>
===ISO delays the standard===
Again, Microsoft claimed IPR over their APIs and ISO put the standard on hold pending proof of their claims. The delay lasted until November 1997 when hearing no response from Microsoft ISO announced they were pushing threw with the standard.<ref name="Cargill"/>
== References ==
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