ManaGeR

ManaGeR (MGR) was a graphical windowing system. The MGR server provided a built-in window manager and windowed graphics terminal emulation on color and monochrome bitmap displays. MGR was controlled by mousing pop-up menus, by keyboard interaction, and by escape sequences written on pseudo-terminals by client software.

MGR was used as a light-weight GUI system for low-powered PC systems running OS-9, Coherent, Linux, BSD or VSTa.

Features

MGR provided each client window with:

termcap-style terminal control functions, graphics primitives such as line and circle drawing;
facilities for manipulating bitmaps, fonts, icons, and pop-up menus;
commands to reshape and position windows; and a message passing facility enabling client programs to rendezvous and exchange messages. Client programs may ask to be informed when a change in the window system occurs, such as a reshaped window, a pushed mouse button, or a message sent from another client program. These changes are called events. MGR notifies a client program of an event by sending it an ASCII character string in a format specified by the client program. Existing applications can be integrated into the windowing environment without modification by having MGR imitate keystrokes in response to user defined menu selections or other events.

Designer rights

Stephen Uhler, with others working at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies), was the original designer and implementer of MGR, so Bellcore has copyrighted much of the code and documentation for MGR under the condition that it may not be sold for profit, the copyright notice must be reproduced on copies, and credit should be given to Bellcore where it is due.