More Old "Dr Watson" Version?

[OltScript131]

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 !

Here is the find : https://archive.org/details/IBM-Microso ... indows+1.0

Is it a build just after Build 026 ? Or before ??

[Lucas Brooks]

The DRWASTON.EXE in 034e has a dialogue called SHERDIAG which could mean Sherlock Diagnostics. The icon is still the pipe.

The icon in 034e doesn't have a white background but the icon itself is exactly the same.

BTW, which build are these:

[jimmsta]

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.

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?)

[Lucas Brooks]

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?

[Overdoze]

Not linking sources on this, but here's the icon in those screenshots above.

It's not exactly the same though. Top left corner looks different (as does the background obviously).

[jimmsta]

converting the icon from ico to png didn't maintain the transparency, but I assure you it is the same icon.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fv7v3csbbrsa ... s.zip?dl=0

[Overdoze]

converting the icon from ico to png didn't maintain the transparency, but I assure you it is the same icon.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4fv7v3csbbrsa ... s.zip?dl=0

Ah, indeed.

[Lucas Brooks]

What? I thought this: is the icon... It was extracted from DRWASTON.EXE from build 034e using Resource Workshop.

I compared this one with the one from the screenshots, they are the same.

[os2fan2]

Windows NT has vers 1.0b, which works quite well under vanilla win31. But i think it's just an updated version of the version.h file used here.

[Exemptus]

Quoting from http://web.archive.org/web/200607061832 ... 92483.aspx:

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.