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Carnegie Mellon University

The Andrew Consortium

Welcome to Andrew

What is Andrew?

The Andrew User Interface System (Andrew) is a portable set of applications that runs under X11.

The software system was built as a compound document architecture which can create and combine just about anything from text to pictures to graphs to spreadsheets to figures, into a single document on your screen. It contains the following components:

What does Andrew look like?

View Andrew by taking a look at screen images of the software along with a description of how it works. (Warning: this file contains several large inlined images.)

If you are running X, you can also try Andrew right now by following our instructions for the Andrew Remote Demo Service.

Will Andrew work on my machine?

Andrew has been compiled and used successfully on many platforms. It probably runs on your machine. Take a look!

How can I use Andrew?

The source code for our most recent public release, Andrew 6.3, is free and available via ftp files. The instructions for downloading the source code may be found here.

Browse through the source tree by clicking here.

We also distribute free, ready-to-install Andrew6.3 executables. Press here for instuctions on downloading the executables. Executables are available for the following platforms:

What other items might I consider downloading?

We are now distributing Bison A2.2, an enhanced version of GNU Bison 1.22 (an alternative to yacc.) This has some features that the GNU version does not. Also, we are distributing with it parser code which is not restricted by the GNU Public License or any other license; you can use this parser with Bison to produce parsers which are not restricted by the GPL.

If you are already running Andrew 5.1, you may want to download the "unknown" inset. This will allow you to safely view documents or mail which contain insets and features from later versions. Follow the link for more information.

A WYSIWYG HTML Editor has been created using the Andrew Toolkit. Its parent is Nick Williams at the City University of London. You can obtain it at http://web.cs.city.ac.uk/homes/njw/htmltext/htmltext.html or right along with Andrew (see our source).

Is there an FAQ on Andrew?

Yes, the Andrew Frequently Asked Questions volume or FAQ is also available in our FTP archives. It is a long text file (about 60K), but by using Andrew's ez editor to search it, you will find the answers to your questions in no time.

What other information is available about Andrew?

Andrew's entire FTP archive is available to you. Besides the source tree, it contains all of the information written about Andrew since its inception. In this archive, you will find technical papers on Andrew, newsletters to our membership and interested users, patches, announcements about changes to the system, besides all of the information mentioned on this home page.

What improvements can I expect from Andrew in the near future?

We are making some serious progress on a widget set for Andrew. Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering class at the School of Computer Science is even lending a hand! By April, we are sure to have some news about this.

How can freeware, such as Andrew, survive?

Only through the generosity of Andrew Consortium members does the Andrew User Interface System continue to be made available to the general public --- free of charge.

Take up membership at the Andrew Consortium. This is the group of programming experts who maintain and enhance the system, and who are ready and waiting to provide you with technical support. Join up and gain early access to our latest system developments (like the "members only" Andrew 7 in C++). What's more, by becoming a member you can influence the future of the system by guiding its development.

Get to know the Andrew Consortium staff by clicking here.

Can you tell us more?

All kinds of general information about Andrew and the Andrew Consortium is available on the web. Our most comprehensive document is Facts on File which will give you an overview of the system and our organization. Specific portions of Facts on File can be found below. If you have additional questions about Andrew, try:

For further information, send mail to our electronic bboard: info-andrew-request@andrew.cmu.edu

The Andrew Consortium is part of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.

This page is maintained by Andrew Plotkin (ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu)
(last update: 10/17/94)