Post subject: More Old "Dr Watson" Version? Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 12:24 am
Joined Sat Sep 10, 2011 9:46 am
Posts 251
Favourite OS OltScript System
Hello,
I found by looking something else on Archive.Org, that I found some pages coming from a magazine (PC Magazine), where I saw that there were photos but a detail intrigued me... I noticed Dr. Watson's pipe icon found in Windows 3.1 Build 034e, but it was not exactly the same, we see a white background in the icon and it's not called "Dr. Watson" but "Sherlock" !
At the same time, I remembered that "Dr. Watson" was almost called "Sherlock" at first, which I read somewhere : https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/?p=33353 Unfortunately, on Windows 3.1 Build 026, I could not check... ._.
It seems to me that Dr. Watson appeared for the first time in beta versions of Windows 3.1 !
Post subject: Re: More Old "Dr Watson" Version? Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:08 am
Joined Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:43 am
Posts 783
Favourite OS Win10/Debian Linux
Not linking sources on this, but here's the icon in those screenshots above. Sherlock was in development from sometime before May 1991 (version 0.71) - August 1991 (version 0.78). It was renamed to Dr.Watson after this time period.
The version shown in the article was likely the May 1991 version.
Quote:
Changes to Sherlock
8 May 1991 ========== donc Put report in Windows, not Windows\System, directory (before today) donc Fix hang when switched to using TaskMan (before today) donc Increase stack size - TIGA hang (before today) donc Change version to 0.71 donc Avoid divide-by-0 in GDI (jont) donc Link with ToolHelp again, not Sherlock.DLL (timg) donc Fix mispelled 'occurred' donc Validate code segment on stack walk (hang bug) donc Add sherlock version # to pop-up box donc Decode more faulting instructions - [rep] string group donc Decode xlat instruction donc Show file date, size, and time donc Detect large Sherlock file and warn user donc Show local variables donc Reformat output, so it fits 80 column lines even when mailed donc Show owner of code in DisAsm donc Two line summary of important info
9 May 1991 ========== donc Disable divide-by-0 fault unless "trapzero=1" in [sherlock] win.ini donc Changed version to 0.72 donc Return whether error was Read, Write or Read/Write of memory
15 May 1991 =========== donc Change version to 0.73 donc Change name to Dr. Watson (when?)
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Post subject: Re: More Old "Dr Watson" Version? Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 5:26 am
Joined Sat Oct 20, 2018 11:37 am
Posts 460
That icon is the one from 034e. It has a transparent background whereas the real Sherlock icon has a white background. Which build was the screenshots?
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The original name of the diagnostic tool was "Sherlock", whose icon was a lit drop-stem pipe. I remember chatting about the Doctor with its author, the late Don Corbitt, whose office was just a few doors down from mine. In 1991, he had to change the name from "Sherlock" to "Dr. Watson"; I had forgotten why, but Danny Glasser came to my rescue and reminded me that there was already a debugging tool called "Sherlock" that had come out a few years previously. The name had to change, and the Doctor stepped in to fill Sherlock's shoes. The icon was originally a doctor's bag, but it changed to the stethoscope-wielding general practitioner a few months later.
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