News Archive

This page provides an archive of previous Winteracter product announcements:

Please note : References to "support for" specific third party software do not imply endorsement of same. Refer to Supported Compilers/Platforms for more information.


  • Winteracter 15

19th April 2022 (updated 3rd June 2022)

Winteracter v15.0 is now available. As always, upgrades are available from any previous release. See the Price List.

View the full version 15.0 release notes.

  • Platforms and Compilers
    • Windows 11 successfully tested and now officially supported. In practice, no W11-specific issues were encountered, but testing revealed some minor issues shared with earlier Windows releases, which have been addressed. While Windows 11 itself now only runs on 64-bit processors, it still supports 32-bit programs, so Winteracter continues to support creation of 32-bit applications, either on or for Windows 11.
    • The Intel ifx LLVM-based Fortran compiler supplied with the Intel oneAPI HPC toolkit is now officially supported, allowing creation of 64-bit programs on Windows and Linux (there is no ifx compiler for the Mac and ifx does not allow creation of 32-bit programs on Windows).
    • As of 15.0a, the versions of Winteracter built with GCC 8 have been tested successfully with GNU gfortran 11 and 12.
  • Presentation Graphics
    • Combined 2D/3D contour/surface plots : 3D Z plane projection option added to IPgContour2, IPgConFill2, IPgConGrad2 and IPgColFill2. Allows line/fill based 2D contour plots to be drawn above/below 3D surfaces.
    • High/low surface : New IPgSurf3HighLow and IPgSurf3HighLowCol routines. Logically similar to stepped surfaces, but with upper/lower extent specified for each column. Essentially three plot styles:
      • Uniform colour.
      • Graduated colour. Start/end colours determined by high/low values relative to fixed max/min colour range.
      • Individual colours specified for each bar in surface.
    • Bar charts/Histograms : Various enhancements:
      • Graduated colour, where start/end colours are determined by extent relative to fixed max/min colour range.
      • 3D option added to high/low histograms.
      • Graduated colour options extended to include 3D plot types.
      • Various minor outline related improvements.
    • Graduated fills now performed via an automatic runtime choice between IGrPolygonGrad and IGrPolygonShaded, rather than always using the former. Latter gives better performance in most output formats, particularly Windows GDI.
    • Text rotation : Scale annotation and key plotting both benefit from improved client side font rotation on X.
    • Markers : IPgMarker and IPgStyle can use the 16 new markers added to IGrMarker.
    • Key : IPgKeyAll now supports 270 degree rotation in addition to 90 degrees.
  • Graphics primitives
    • IGrMarker supports 16 more markers (now 64 in total).
    • Shaded fills : Support added to PostScript graphics hardcopy driver. Xlib version of IGrPolygonShaded now ~30% faster.
    • Rotated text : 90/180/270 degree rotation now supported on X, when using client side anti-aliased fonts drawn via Xft/fontconfig.
  • Dialogs
    • Treeviews :
    • List box : Better Home/End key support on X.
    • Combo box : Restyled drop down button icon on X.
  • Common dialogs
    • Directory selector : X version completely rewritten to use a treeview. On Windows, Silverfrost FTN95 version now uses a treeview, as for other Fortran compilers.
    • Marker selector : 16 new markers.
    • All : Restyled button images in most common dialogs on X.
  • Editor windows
    • WEditFind : Much faster on Windows. Line length limit eliminated. Word wrap and page break issues addressed.
    • Toolbar : Set/goto bookmark buttons added.
    • XQuartz : Better choice of next/previous word keys on Mac.
    • Focus : Improved focus control when setting position or adding a file to multi-buffer editor.
  • OpenGL
    • Two new graphical input routines. OpenGL equivalents of WGrInput/WGrInputDrag:
      • WglInput : Cross hair, rubber-banded line, rectangle or ellipse.
      • WlgInputDrag : Drag line, polyline, curve or ellipse.
  • Help files
    • Index control in HTML/Javascript help file sets generated by HelpEd reworked to improve functionality and appearance. Easier option selection and better resizing. Same change also benefits the supplied documentation on Linux and Mac.
    • WHelpFile :
      • HTML Help (CHM) support reworked, on Windows. No longer relies on htmhelp.lib import library or wintax/wintax64 DLL. Simplifies linking and eliminates need to distribute DLL with applications built with GNU or Silverfrost compilers.
      • Windows version invokes non-local web pages via ShellExecuteEx. Eliminates browser dependencies and issues with urls containing spaces.
  • WiDE
    • Fortran docs : New Fortran compiler option on the Help menu provides access to Fortran compiler's documentation. Option is sensitive to current compiler choice and, where possible, compiler version number.
    • Intel Fortran : New compiler option on Windows and Linux for the ifx compiler. As of 15.0e, this is complemented by a new C/C++ compiler option for Intel's icx compiler
    • Visual Studio 2022 supported as tools/libraries and debugger provider with Intel ifort and ifx on Windows.
    • Maximum files configurable per-project. Particularly useful for large projects (e.g. subroutine libraries).
    • Number of files which can be added in a single Add project file(s) action substantially increased.
    • Bare project creation's automated file addition feature refined.
    • Application Wizard upgraded:
      • Images updated to provide a more up to date preview of typical resulting user interface.
      • Shares code generation preferences with ResEdit, WED and GraphEd, for consistent code style.
      • Several minor improvements to the generated code.
      • New X dialog icons predefined resource automatically enabled, for restyled X treeview/combo box icons.
    • Improvements to Extract Routines, List Routines, Reformat and WPP options.
    • Improved support for LF95 Express.
  • WED
    • Winteracter routine information option extended to allow message documentation to be displayed.
    • Search history performance improved on Windows.
    • Print option generates page break at form feed characters.
    • Set/goto bookmark toolbar buttons.
    • Find All and Goto Routine rely on stricter syntactic analysis to identify program units.
    • Date insertion uses local language month name.
    • Mixed case keywords choice added to code generation options.
  • Resource editor
    • User-defined include files can now be managed via an option on the Settings menu.
    • X dialog icons option added to predefined resources for modernised treeview and combo box images, on X.
    • Clipboard option added to both code generation dialogs.
  • Graph Designer
    • High/low stepped surface plots.
    • Various bar chart/histogram additions: 3D option for high/low plots, separate 2D and 3D outline colours selectable, graduated colour support extended.
    • Plot preview on X benefits from shaded fill optimisation and improved rotated text support.
    • Keys can be rotated by 270 degrees.
    • Better handling of log/linear scaling.
    • Sixteen new markers selectable in scatter, line and X/Y pair plots.
    • Code generation now uses same preferences as WED, ResEdit and the Application Wizard.
  • Obsolete feature checker
    • New code inspection tool helps identify usage of old Winteracter features which have been superseded or have become redundant. Around 250 obsolete features have accumulated over the last 25 years, so maybe it's time for a spring clean!
    • Identifies obsolete derived types, subroutines, functions and parameter names.
    • For each obsolete feature usage, the checker reports:
      • Line number and source statement.
      • Feature type and version when it was declared obsolete.
      • Advice on why it is obsolete and/or what replaced it.
    • Any number of files can be checked in a single run.
    • Report can be generated in HTML, CSV or plain text format.
    • Supplied via a GUI interface in WiDE or a command line tool for non-WiDE users.
  • Installation (Linux and Mac)
    • MIME filetype association option on Linux, for WiDE projects, resource files, 3D models and graph description files. Successfully tested on Gnome, XFCE and Unity.
    • Desktop shortcut creation now offered regardless of user type performing the installation. Allows desktop shortcut to be added to login user's account, even when installing via sudo.
    • Linux desktop shortcuts now differentiate between tools which support multiple and single command line files, to improve drag+drop support.
    • Several command line options allow semi-automation of installation.
    • Directory selector uses new treeview based common dialog.
    • Higher resolution Winteracter logo associated with desktop icon, when "Launchpad" shortcut selected.
  • email (Linux/Mac)
    • WEmailSend : Rewritten on Linux and Mac, substantially aligning functionality with Windows versions:
      • DisplayInterface flag supported for first time on both Linux and Mac. Invokes system default email application, with program supplied data, ready to edit/send.
      • Reliance on sendmail eliminated entirely on Mac. System default email application also now used when DisplayInterface not specified.
      • System email app now opened automatically when no recipient specified.
  • 3D Model Viewer
    • Combined zoom+pan feature, in single operation, using Ctrl+Shift+mouse.
    • Improved error reporting when loading files.
    • When using software renderer, X version benefits from faster shaded fill primitive.
  • 3D Modelling
    • Gouraud shading : W3dShow benefits from improved Xlib and PostScript shaded fill support.
    • Vertex indices : Max number configurable via W3dNew. Current and max can be interrogated via Winfo3dInteger.
  • Graphics Import
    • PNG : Transparent image support extended to accept paletted PNG files (specifically, files with <=256 colours containing a "tRNS transparency chunk" rather than 32-bit RGBA data). Internal "color type" now reported by IGrFileInfo.
    • JPEG : Support for poorly formed JPEG files with "SOI" marker, but mising JFIF/Exif information.
  • OS interface
    • IOsFullPathname : Now uses realpath() on Linux/Mac.
    • Original user : IOsUserName can now return current user's original login name, regardless of use of sudo and WInfoFilename can now report their login directory.
    • System strings : New WInfoSystemString routine returns o.s. version as a string, o.s. name and local computer host name.
    • Version number : WInfoSystem now returns major, minor and build numbers as three separate values on all of Windows, Linux and macOS. Allows differentiation between Windows 10 and 11.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Multi-resolution ICO/CUR file Creator : GUI version of the command line mergeico tool added. Allows input files to be assembled via a file selector and previews input file contents.
    • PlotConv : Shows more precise colour/transparency information for PNG files. Supports transparent paletted PNG files.
    • WPP pre-processor : Max line length increased from 132 to 256 characters.
    • Licence information dialog now includes a Check for update button. Opens a page on this site which reports whether a bug-fix update is available for the currently installed version.
    • WInfoScreen : Menu and tooltip colours now interrogated via themes library on Windows, giving more accurate results.
    • Stock images : Several new stock icons, toolbar buttons and cursors.
    • Demos : Several new demos and various updates to existing programs.
    • As notified previously, this release drops support for the discontinued Lahey Fortran 8.x compiler on Linux. Windows support is not affected.


  • News : Absoft Fortran 21.0 (Pro Fortran 2021)

28th November 2020

Absoft Fortran 21.0 has been successfully tested with Winteracter 14.0, on all of Windows, Linux and Mac.


  • Winteracter 14

17th November 2020 (updated 9th February 2021)

Version 14.10

Winteracter v14.10 is now available. This adds various incremental functionality to the recently released v14.0 (see below). Version 14.10 is available at no additional cost to registered customers who already hold a v14.0 licence.

View the full version 14.10 release notes.
  • NVIDIA Fortran
    • NVIDIA Fortran is now supported on Linux. This compiler forms part of the recently released free-of-charge NVIDIA HPC SDK. This SDK includes NVIDIA (formerly PGI) Fortran and C/C++ compilers.
    • The Linux version of WiDE has been updated to allow applications to be built with NVIDIA Fortran. NVIDIA C/C++ are also supported.
  • GNU gfortran 10 : Winteracter has been tested with gfortran 10 on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. All three are compatible. The only issue noted was that the --static switch is currently broken in some Windows builds of GCC 10, depending on the associated MinGW-W64/Binutils versions. [Note: While not a Winteracter fault, the static linking issue does impact our standard linking advice and WiDE defaults. Executables can still be linked dynamically on Windows, by removing the --static switch. Alternatively, a version of GCC 10 is available here, which uses slightly earlier versions of MingGW-W64/Binutils.]
  • Tooltips
    • The duration of runtime-assigned toolbar and dialog field tooltips can now be set. The duration of each tooltip can be set individually.
    • The default tooltip duration can now be set by the user, for all X/Winteracter-based applications, in the X version.
  • Grids : The new PushButtonGrid message introduced at v14.0 (see below) has been extended to allow optional grid row/column label button press reporting.
  • Documentation
    • The "X/Winteracter Getting Started Guide" has been retired, with its contents now merged into the appropriate sections of the main documentation. This eliminates duplication and inconsistency issues and ensures that the Guide's contents are available on all platforms.
    • Three new FAQ items have been added. Notably this includes advice on configuring Visual Studio 2019 for use with Intel Fortran Classic (from the Intel oneAPI HPC Toolkit).
  • Demos : A version of the OpenGL 'dino' example program has been added, illustrating use of tesselators.
  • Intel oneAPI : Intel's rebranded "Classic" compiler, which forms part of the freely available Intel oneAPI HPC Toolkit has been tested for compatibility. Minor compatibility adjustments were made to WiDE at the 14.0b update.
  • Lahey Fortran : As of v14.10b, WiDE's Lahey compiler detection on Windows now recognises the recently released Lahey Fortran 7.9.

Note: Users of Linux Lahey Fortran 8.x should note that v14.10 is the last release to support this discontinued compiler. LF 8.x has not been updated in several years and does not work on recent Linux distributions. Support will be removed at the next major release. Support for Windows Lahey compilers is unaffected.

Version 14.0

Winteracter v14.0 added a variety of new functionality:

View the full version 14.0 release notes.

  • Grids
    • Push button columns : Caption on each cell can be specified individually. New PushButtonGrid message.
    • Check box cell captions can also be assigned individually.
    • New current cell indicator, common to Windows and X. Clean, simple single pixel thickness border.
    • Automatically generated numeric row labels option.
    • Get true cell string length, including trailing spaces.
    • Windows-specific improvements:
      • Major reduction in storage requirements for string columns.
      • Undocumented row label length limit eliminated.
    • X Windows-specific improvements:
      • Reduced storage requirements when using colour or row labels.
      • Improved mouse/keyboard handling in combo box columns.
      • Numerous issues related to right-click menu addressed.
      • Better check marks in printer output for check box columns.
      • PostScript printer output file size halved.
  • Dialogs
    • Treeviews : Check boxes can now be associated with each item:
      • New routines to get/set treeview check box states.
      • New FieldChanged sub-message reports when they change state.
      • Treeview CSV/TSV save/load routines now allow for check boxes.
    • Combo boxes : Improved mouse/keyboard behaviour on X.
    • String/numeric fields : Max length dynamically modifiable at runtime.
  • Editor windows
    • X version supports multi-level undo.
    • Program controllable undo/redo actions:
      • Undo buffer size control.
      • Clear undo buffer.
      • Invoke undo (Windows and X) or redo (Windows).
    • Several other minor improvments.
  • Bit-image files
    • ICO/CUR : Multi-resolution Windows icon/cursor support improved. These allow Windows Explorer or a X desktop manager to use the most appropriate image resolution. Specific changes:
      • When interrogating a multi-res ICO/CUR or loading an image from such a file, the required image can be specified by resolution (e.g. 48x48) or by position (1st, 2nd, ...).
      • The X resource compiler now compiles all of the images in such files into the resource object file. The library uses these when setting window/dialog icons, allowing desktops like Gnome to pick the appropriate size.
      • Each of the visual tools now has a dual-resolution icon, adding a higher resolution program icon.
      • Support added to resource editor, PlotConv and WinterView.
      • "mergeico" command line tool added. Combines multiple ICO or CUR files (single or multi-image) into a multi-resolution file.
    • PNG-compressed images in ICO/CUR files (a.k.a. "Vista" icons) supported. These are 32-bit RGBA images compressed in PNG format, but hidden behind a Windows ICO/CUR header. Their main benefit is reduced compiled resource size on Windows (our resource compiler on X already uses equivalent compression). Specific changes:
      • All routines which read ICO files (e.g. IGrLoadImageData) can extract data from PNG compressed images, either in single image format or mixed PNG/BMP format multi-resolution files.
      • WGrConvertImage, WImageSaveData and WIconSave allow use of PNG-compression when saving icons in 32-bit RGBA ICO/CUR format.
    • BMP : Files in "top down" row order can be read by IGrFileInfo, IGrLoadImageData, IGrLoadImage and WGrConvertImage. Also supported when retrieving X clipboard BMP images. Support also added to visual tools.
    • Stock images : Several additional icons, toolbar button bitmaps and cursors.
  • Shape/Fill primitives
    • Graphics shape/fill routines substantially overhauled.
    • Ellipses : No longer restricted to axis alignment. Any rotation angle allowed.
    • Arcs : Can be elliptical, at any angle. Closure method can now be explicitly specified as none, pie or chord (chord closure is new at this release).
    • IGrReplay updated to recognise new ellipse/arc variants.
    • Shape outlines : Where an outline is required and the underlying API or output format does not provide a suitable primitive, a polyline is now drawn regardless of shape. This can provide efficiency/quality benefits, depending on API/format.
    • Various long-standing edge case issues addressed w.r.t. interactions between particular shape/fill and graphics export/import driver combinations.
    • Most shape fill routines now smaller and more efficient.
  • Metafiles
    • CGM files can be added to program resource on Windows and X.
    • New WMetafileLoadResource : Load a resource EMF or CGM into a memory metafile.
    • CGM importer recognises wider range of 3rd party files. Benefits IGrFileInfo, IGrReplay, WMetafileLoad and PlotConv.
    • CGM image size support via "scaling mode", on both import and export. CGM options dialog allows image extent to be specified.
  • Visual tools : String lengths
    • Various changes relating to string lengths in the visual tools:
      • Maximum string lengths in resource files standardised at 256 characters. Raises length limits on the following: Menu item captions (was 40), tab captions (was 64), dialog titles (was 80), menu item prompts (was 100), toolbar tooltips (was 40) and treeview item captions (was 40).
      • Fortran program unit and parameter name handling in various visual tools upgraded to Fortran 2003 standard (max 63 characters - was 31, as per F90 standard). Benefits WED, WiDE, ResEdit, GraphEd and HelpEd.
      • WiDE compiler/tools switch strings can now be up to 1024 characters long.
      • WiDE external command string length limit effectively eliminated. Maximum length of command line arguments which can be passed to project executable increased from 256 to 1024.
  • WiDE
    • New Subroutines option on Help menu provides quick summary or full documentation for any non-obsolete library routine.
    • Maximum files per project increased to 1000.
    • More settings independently selectable in Release and Debug configurations (e.g. executable name and arguments, resource compiler switches)
    • View Project Directory : Open project files folder view in Explorer or equivalent.
    • Launchpad button in Project dialog provides quick access to visual tools and documentation.
    • Default debugger for use with Intel Fortran on Linux/Mac is now gdb-ia, which superseded Intel's idb.
    • Reformatter recognises F2008 submodules.
    • List Routines and Extract Routines program unit detection rewritten to detect modern Fortran syntax.
    • GNU related improvements on Windows and X.
    • Access to compiler-supplied help improved, when using Absoft or Silverfrost compilers.
    • Shared library and external command handling updated, mainly on Linux/Mac:
      • Library path configurable for each Linux/Mac Fortran compiler and for GNU gfortran on Windows.
      • Mac process invocation reworked to ensure essential shared libraries are accessible to spawned processes. Similar changes on Mac and Linux benefit spawned command prompts.
      • Improved support for shared version of Motif, where used.
      • Mac version now opens Terminal instead of xterm, when a command prompt is required, on the Mac console. (xterm still used when running via remote X server.)
      • Preferred Linux command prompt program configurable. Choice of KDE konsole, gnome-terminal or xterm.
  • Resource editor
    • Grid row label selection reworked/simplified in Grid Properties dialog.
    • Image handling:
      • Image Properties dialog can preview any image in multi-resolution resource ICO/CUR files.
      • PNG-compressed RGBA ICO/CUR files and "top-down" order BMP files supported.
      • Image editor undo buffer depth increased.
    • Add resource option streamlined.
    • Generated resource file size reduced by around 15%.
    • CGM metafiles can be imported.
    • Edit mode field stacking/tab ordering refinements in dialog editor.
  • WED
    • Multi-level undo option added to X version.
    • Undo buffer size configurable on Windows and X.
    • Goto Routine : Program unit detection completely rewritten to detect modern Fortran syntax. Also copes with source lines > 132 characters long.
    • Find All : Result filtering option added, allowing repeated search refinement.
  • Debugging/error reporting
    • Error handler : Additional error reporting level (5), allows an application-supplied error handler to be called each time an error code is generated in a Winteracter library call. The error handler receives the error number, the name of the routine which encountered the error and a string description of the error.
    • Diagnostics file name used by routines in DG group can be specified.
  • Graphics hardcopy/export
    • HP-GL : Plotter support rationalised to assume genuine HP devices only. Simplifies driver and allows better use of standard HP-GL commands, which were not used by default previously. Reduces output file size and improves quality when exported to 3rd party applications.
    • SVG : Font selection improvements.
  • Desktop shortcuts
    • Several improvements to desktop shortcut creation at installation, particularly on Linux:
      • Installer on X offers choice of "Folder view" or "Launchpad", when creating desktop shortcuts. The latter overcomes widely varying quality of implementation issues associated with desktop shortcuts among Linux desktop managers. The new Launchpad program provides common access to supplied tools and documentation, across all X desktops.
      • Desktop shortcut icons redesigned with cleaner and higher resolution images.
  • Compilers/Platforms
    • The Linux GNU gfortran and Absoft Pro Fortran implementations are now built differently to cater for linker (ld) builds which require position independent code, even for executables. This simplifies linking on such systems.
    • The Linux GNU gfortran version has been successfully tested with GCC 9.x.
    • As notified at the time of the 13.0 release, the Linux and Mac versions are now 64-bit only. The Windows version continues to include 32-bit support.
  • Data viewer
    • Image to analyse selectable, when loading a multi-resolution ICO/CUR file.
    • PNG-compressed ICO/CUR files and "top-down" order BMP files can be loaded.
    • Improved support for saving ICO format files, when image data modified.
  • PlotConv
    • Multi-image file browsing extended to support multi-resolution ICO/CUR files. Forward/back controls can be used to select image to view/print/convert, as for CGM or HP-GL files.
    • Other ICO/CUR file improvements, e.g. the max 256x256 pixel size is now supported by the Convert option. PNG-compression in ICO/CUR files supported on both load and save.
    • Top-down order BMP files can be loaded.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Operating system interface : New IOsOpenDir opens specified directory in Windows Explorer, Mac Finder or the equivalent Linux desktop-dependent file explorer.
    • Presentation graphics : Scale plotting routines now support tick marks which extend across both sides of axis line.
    • Information functions : New options to interrogate mouse double-click times, push-button grid cell properties and dialog field style.
    • Clipboard : Bitmap interrogation/retrieval on X refined to improve 3rd party application compatibility (notably with KDE-based tools on Linux).
    • WPlayMovie : Movie playback now allowed on Linux, in a very similar manner to the Mac version.
    • WHelpfile : PDF files now opened via xdg-open on Linux, eliminating need to configure a suitable reader. CHM files can be viewed on Linux/Mac, where a suitable third-party CHM viewer is installed.
    • Demos : Six more demonstration programs, including two new mouse tracking examples.
    • Absoft Fortran 21.0 ("Pro Fortran 2021") : Tested for compatibility on all of Windows, Linux and Mac.

  • Intel Fortran 19.1 (XE 2019)

18th December 2019

The newly released Intel Fortran 19.1, which forms part of Intel Parallel Studio XE 2020, has been successfully tested with the current Winteracter release (13.0) on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. No changes were necessary on any platform.


  • Winteracter 13.0

2nd December 2019

Winteracter v13.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 13.0 release notes.

  • GraphEd
    • Major overhaul of the presentations graphics designer.
    • Plot descriptions can be saved/loaded to/from data files, allowing plot reuse or design over multiple sessions. Fundamentally shifts the program's utility.
    • Various additional plot design options:
      • Marker size control on line, polyline, scatter and 2D line-based contour plots.
      • Evenly spaced contours in 2D/3D contour plots.
      • Irregular grids on 3D surface and volume plots.
      • Rotated value labels on bar-charts, histograms and high/low plots.
      • Z units selectable on 2D contour plots.
      • Outline presence selectable on pie charts, high/low plots and histograms/bar-charts.
    • Existing dialogs extensively improved:
      • Font size selection simplified, using a single percentage field.
      • More spinners and Apply buttons.
      • Help buttons added to nearly all dialogs. Directly link each dialog to appropriate page in newly restructured documentation.
      • Style dialogs extensively redesigned, to clearly categorise options (Marker, Line, Fill, etc.)
      • More precise management of mutually exclusive plotting options.
      • Many other general improvements.
    • Fortran code generator substantially upgraded:
      • More use of symbolic names.
      • All colours expressed as 24-bit values or symbolic names.
      • Numerous general plot-type specific improvements.
    • Extra toolbar buttons for Graph Style, Axes Style, Annotation, Scales and Key dialogs.
  • Presentation Graphics
    • Improvements to markers on line, scatter, polyline and 2D line-based contour plots:
      • Size selectable, independent of character size.
      • More appropriate aspect ratios applied.
      • Eight new markers selectable.
    • Z scale value/position now explicitly selectable.
    • Irregular grids supported on 3D surface/volume plots.
    • Key layout improvements.
    • Values labels on bar-charts, histograms and high/low-plots can be rotated through 90°.
    • Several new symbolic names added for various settings which were previously assigned numerically.
  • X Windows font encoding
    • Greatly improved international character support. Windows-1252 or UTF-8 encoding (also UTF-8-MAC on Mac). Defaults to Windows-1252 for compatibility with Windows version. [Internally, all X screen string output standardised on UTF-8 encoding. UTF-8 is a multi-byte character encoding, used as standard by the World Wide Web and the Linux filesystem.]
    • All filenames in common dialogs and visual tools are displayed in the encoding which is native to the local filesystem (UTF-8 on Linux and UTF-8-MAC on the Mac).
    • Non-ASCII characters can now be entered in string fields and editors, using client-side fonts (Xft font rendering).
    • Default Windows-1252 encoding adds support for character codes 128-159 (e.g. euro currency character, at code 128).
    • All screen text output now relies exclusively on client side fonts. Reliance on obsolete X server fonts eliminated, simplifying X font selection.
    • Clipboard handling reworked to improve UTF-8 compatibility (see below).
    • Encoding can be set on a per-field basis in dialogs.
    • Window/dialog titles now support UTF-8, on XDG compliant window managers.
  • Multiple monitors
    • Upgraded support for multiple-monitor configurations.
    • Information functions report:
      • Number of monitors.
      • Size/position of each monitor.
      • Monitor which contains a given coordinate.
      • Monitor which a given window or dialog lies in.
      • Monitor which the input focus window/dialog lies in.
      • Entire desktop extent reported separately from monitor size(s).
    • Message boxes on X now centred on an automatically selected monitor.
    • Dialog and window centring now multi-monitor aware.
    • Window/dialog positioning in visual tools now more multi-monitor aware.
  • Editor windows
    • New WEditState routine can be used to eliminate window flicker when performing multiple updates.
    • Replace All faster in X version.
    • Built-in toolbar tooltips and button state now modifiable, as for user toolbars.
  • Dialogs
    • Treeview definitions can be saved/loaded at runtime to/from CSV/TSV files.
    • Dialog position can be changed under program control.
    • WDialogGetRadioButton can now retrieve selected item identifier in addition to position.
  • Grids
    • Search/replace upgraded to align with equivalent text editor options:
      • Reverse search in grid fields and grid windows.
      • Replace option added to grid window menu. Offers Find Next, Replace and Replace All.
      • Set/Goto Boomark options in grid windows.
    • Save as HTML grid window option and WGridSaveHTML both now allow font selection.
    • Copying multi-cell data on X requires substantially less memory.
    • Whole of status bar now optionally accessible in grid windows.
    • Grid window built-in toolbar tooltips and button state now modifiable, as for user toolbars.
    • Clearer label separation on Windows 8/10.
  • Common dialogs
    • Message boxes restyled on X. Gives an improved appearance, more consistent with other X/Winteracter dialogs. Also supports more accelerator keys.
    • X font selector now interrogates available fonts via API calls, rather than relying on external program invocation.
    • Marker selector offers 8 new markers.
  • Graphics
    • IGrMarker supports eight more markers and allows direct control over marker size.
    • "Print to file" option added to Windows Print Manager graphics hardcopy and image dump drivers.
  • Mouse cursors
    • New predefined "hand" and "help" cursors added to WCursorShape, on all platforms.
    • X Windows: All predefined cursor shapes selectable via WCursorShape replaced. Ensures larger (32x32) cursor images and consistent appearance (overcomes inappropriate "standard" cursor substitution, in some Linux desktop environments).
  • Clipboard
    • Clipboard interrogation reworked to cope with X clipboard model, where multiple data types can be present simultaneously.
    • Clipboard bitmap retrieval on X now supports PNG and BMP in addition to pixmap. Expands the number of compatible applications which bitmaps can be transferred from.
    • UTF-8 string encoding supported on X:
      • Text from dialog string/numeric fields or editor windows is placed on the clipboard in UTF-8 format.
      • The encoding of text on the clipboard can be identified via WInfoClipboard.
      • Control over encoding of text placed directly on the clipboard via WClipboardPutString.
      • Better support for UTF-8 text placed on clipboard by third party applications/toolkits.
  • WiDE
    • Visual Studio 2019 supported as tools/libraries provider for use with Intel Visual Fortran.
    • Improved location of compiler-supplied modules, when compiling with Intel Visual Fortran.
    • Filetype association and "Open With" options both now support invocation of system-associated applications on Linux (Note: requires xdg-open). Aligns this feature with Windows and Mac versions.
    • Longer compiler/tool switch strings allowed.
    • Filetype associations extended for new WPGD plot description data file format supported by GraphEd.
  • GNU gfortran
    • Windows GCC 8 version successfully tested with GCC 9.
    • GCC 8/9 now supported on Mac.
    • GCC 8 supported on Linux.
  • Resource editor
    • Maximum length can be specified for integer fields and grid cells, in the dialog editor.
    • Select All/Select None options in dialog editor.
    • Image Properties dialogs reworked in the image editor:
      • Separated into four clearly distinguishable dialogs: "Image Properties", "Image File Properties", "Metafile Properties" and Image Import".
      • Separate documentation pages for each dialog.
      • Dialogs now include an image preview field, allowing inspection of non-editable images and verification of images when importing.
      • Clearer messages when an image is non-editable.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Subroutine Reference : The ongoing rework, improving consistency of style and content, has been completed. Many subroutine groups revised, including most of the dialog, grid and graphics documentation.
    • 3D modelling : New WglViewport sets viewport for WglShow. Allows multiple models to be rendered to same drawable.
    • Operating system interface : New IOsOpenDocument opens any document or url in the system-associated application.
    • email : WEmailSend now allows sender to be specified.
    • SetupEd/generic installer : Better installation directory configuration, particularly w.r.t. Program Files folders. Generic installer no longer requires use of "Run as administrator" right-click option (admin requirement built into manifest).
    • Information functions : Several new items can be interrogated via existing functions. New multi-monitor related functions added.
    • WED : Takes advantage of WEditState for cleaner screen updating in multi-file save/load and Find Difference options.
    • Help editor : Improved auto-detection of the hhc and hcrtf CHM and HLP compilers, on Windows. Lists generated by RTF-HTML restyled.
  • 32-bit Linux/Mac - Final release
    • Version 13.0 will be the last to include 32-bit support on Linux and Mac platforms. Support for creation of 32-bit binaries will be withdrawn at the end of the v13.0 release cycle. Upgrade now, if you need the latest 32-bit Linux or Mac version.


  • News : Absoft Fortran 19.0 (Pro Fortran 2019)

22nd February 2019

Absoft Fortran 19.0 has been successfully tested with Winteracter 12.0. No changes were required to any of the Windows, Linux or Mac versions.


  • Intel Fortran 19.0 (XE 2019)

24th September 2018

The newly released Intel Fortran 19.0, which forms part of Intel Parallel Studio XE 2019, has been successfully tested with the current Winteracter release (12.0) on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. No changes were necessary on any platform.


  • Winteracter 12.0

30th July 2018

Winteracter v12.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 12.0 release notes.

  • MenuRequest message: Reports right-clicks or Menu key presses on:
    • Grid column/row labels (right click)
    • List boxes (right click or Menu key)
    • List box portion of simple combo boxes (right click)
    • Drop Down List combo boxes (right click or Menu key)
    • Push buttons (right click or Menu key)
    • Treeviews (right click or Menu key)
    • Tabs in tab controls (right click or Menu key)
    • Toolbars (right click)
    • Status bars (right click)
  • Toolbars:
    • Optional button ID array argument added to WMenuToolbar, defining both button order and presence. Allows single resource file toolbar definition to serve multiple requirements in same program.
    • Visual tools now include a large toolbar (32x32) preference option.
  • Tooltips:
    • Dialog field tooltips now supported.
    • Tooltips assigned automatically to push button fields which have both an associated image and caption.
    • Multiline tooltips supported, on toolbar buttons and dialog fields.
    • Activation/cancellation timings adjusted on X to match Windows.
  • Dialogs:
    • Fonts:
      • Per-dialog and per-field font control on X Windows, via Xft font handling. Non-default font size and style (bold/italic) selections in existing resources used automatically on X, without need to modify resource.
      • Resource editor's dialog/field font selection improved. Common mechanisms for Windows and X (see below).
      • MS Shell Dlg adopted as default font on Windows, replacing MS Sans Serif. Ensures use of anti-aliased fonts, without need for dialog redesign. Existing resources upgraded automatically.
    • Menu fields:
      • Individual items in menu fields can now be replaced, inserted or deleted.
      • Topmost visible item can now be retrieved or assigned.
    • Treeviews:
      • Change in branch state now reported separately from change in selection.
      • Item bounding rectangle can be interrogated.
    • Right-clicks can now act like left-clicks in grid row/column labels, tab controls and menu fields. Typically useful with, but independent of, new MenuRequest message.
    • Get/set selection in text/numeric fields.
  • Common Dialogs:
    • X File selector substantially upgraded:
      • Shortcuts menu: Available via right-click, key press or button-bar push button. Select, Rename, Delete, Properties, "New directory", "Show hidden" and Refresh options, plus an Order sub-menu.
      • Button bar: Larger icons. New Back/Forward buttons navigate through recent directory history, like a web browser. All buttons have a shortcut key and an associated tooltip.
      • File/directory entry info now retrieved via system calls rather than spawned shell command, for improved performance/reliability.
      • Sort order (by name, date, size or extension), case sensitivity (matching and sorting), hidden file inclusion and date format all selectable.
    • Font selector: New WSelectFont added. Lists local fonts, with optional lists of point sizes and/or bold/italic styles. Supported on both Windows and X (latter reports client-side fonts).
    • X message box sizing aligned with current Windows versions.
    • Title now selectable in all common dialogs.
    • All Windows common dialogs now use anti-aliased font by default.
  • 3D modelling:
    • STL ("stereolithography") files can be loaded/saved, in binary and ASCII formats. Such files encode basic surface mesh data and are widely used in 3D printing. STL files supported by library and 3D model viewer tool.
    • Facets, lines, vertices and parts can be deleted from a model.
    • Memory savings when loading models from file which will only be rendered via OpenGL.
  • WiDE:
    • Interaction with project list reworked:
      • New Project Shortcuts menu, accessible via right click, key press or push button. Open, Open With, Browse, Hex Dump, Properties, Rename, New File, Add File(s), Remove and Help options. Right-click on a project file operates on that file.
      • Project tab button list rationalised to most frequently used options: Open, Compile Single/Selected, Compile All, Link, Run and Menu. Buttons enlarged for ease of selection.
      • New Open With option gives more precise control over how to open a file. Particularly useful with ambiguous file types (e.g. .bmp). Also allows file to be opened in system-associated application on Windows or Mac.
      • User-definable toolbar buttons moved to a separate sidebar.
    • A New Image File option allows creation of a toolbar button, bitmap, icon or cursor in the image editor.
    • Absoft Pro Fortran configuration simplified on Windows. Installed compiler versions identified automatically and offered in a combo box.
    • New General Preferences dialog: Choice of toolbar size (16x16 or 32x32), auto save modified files on compile and clean on compile all/build options.
  • Resource editor:
    • Major rework of interaction with Resources dialog:
      • New Resource Shortcuts menu, accessible via right click, key press or push button: Edit, Properties, Field List, Export, Copy, Delete, Save, Add, Find, Import Resource, Import Image, Predefined Resources, Display dialog titles, Display image filenames, Help.
      • Resource Shortcuts menu replaces earlier push buttons (e.g. Add/Find). Particularly beneficial to WiDE users, as menu provides access to functionality which would otherwise require resource editor window to be open.
      • Right-click in Resource treeview allows Edit, Properties, Copy, Delete or Field List options to operate on selected resource, without need to open it in corresponding editor.
      • Frequency of resource treeview repainting reduced.
    • Dialog editor font selection substantially updated:
      • Dialog and field fonts can now be specified for X in addition to Windows. Offers a choice of the default user-definable font (recommended) or one of three generic font families (sans serif, serif or monospaced), along with size and style (bold/italic). Relies on use of client-side fonts (i.e. Xft font handling).
      • Default Windows font changed from MS Sans Serif to MS Shell Dlg "logical" font. Default font associated with latter is anti-aliased and provides same font metrics as MS Sans Serif, so no dialog redesign required. Existing resources which use old default (MS San Serif 8-point) are upgraded automatically.
      • Current font selections (both Windows and X) now shown and selectable in Dialog Properties dialog.
      • New Field Font dialog shows field-specific font selection, if any. Again, common to both Windows and X.
      • Default Font preference selection changed to encourage use of one of the two Windows "logical" fonts (MS Shell Dlg or MS Shell Dlg 2).
      • X font choices can be modified on Windows and vice versa.
    • Undo and Popup options added to right-click shortcuts menu in menu editor.
    • Toolbar editor: RGB PNG/ICO files now imported using alpha blending. Export Button option added to right-click shortcuts menu. Multiline tooltips can be specified.
    • Image editor can be opened directly to create a new image via new -n command line switch.
  • Grids:
    • Save as HTML:
      • Checkbox columns: Improved bullet visibility in non-IE browsers and option to use true check-mark.
      • Use of various deprecated HTML features replaced by CSS, in line with current web best-practice.
      • Cleaner appearance.
    • Line colour control.
    • Find option allows searching by row.
    • Option to suppress "save changes" prompt on exit.
    • X grid printing now allows for variations in font family/style/size.
    • Menu cell string can be interrogated instead of, or in addition to, number of selected option.
  • Editor windows:
    • Font encoding ("language" or "character set") can now be specified on Windows.
    • All pre-defined editor fonts now use "local system default" encoding.
    • New WEditClose closes current buffer in a multi-buffer editor.
    • Option to suppress "save changes" prompt on exit.
  • Operating System Interface:
  • Changes to directory interrogation via IOsDirCount/IOsDirInfo:
    • Linux/Mac versions retrieve info via system calls rather than spawned shell command.
    • Control over reporting of hidden files.
    • Case insensitive file matching and sorting options.
    • Optionally sort on extension.
  • WED:
    • Syntax highlighting updated for Fortran 2003/2008 statements/attributes/constructs and F2008 intrinsics.
    • Support for new MenuRequest messages.
    • Several font related enhancements, including improved character set/encoding support on Windows.
  • Graph designer:
    • New split window layout with simultaneous plot and Fortran code preview.
    • Code preview allows copy/paste direct to editors.
    • Winteracter routine information option in code preview, as used in WED. Provides direct access to argument descriptions and Subroutine Reference.
    • On Windows, code preview is syntax highlighted.
  • Other visual tools:
    • XWintConf: XWcolour upgraded/renamed. Allows configuration of both colour and fonts in X applications.
    • SetupEd/Generic installer: Icon can be specified when creating desktop shortcuts. Environment variable creation now supports references to other variables. Installer's left-panel image modernised.
    • Data viewer: Improvements to 3D model creation option. Plot window now allows for transparency in PNG/ICO files. Preference handling aligned with other tools.
    • HelpEd: RTF-HTML converter allows for whole table justification. CHM initial window position/size control.
  • Compilers:
    • GNU gfortran 8.1 supported, on Windows.
  • General:
    • Preference handling: New subroutine group and template source greatly simplify management of user preference files. (As used in Winteracter visual tools.)
    • Status bars: Target window can be specified directly to WindowOutStatusBar. Performance optimised on X.
    • WInfoFontGUI function reports GUI fonts used for dialogs, grids, menus, status bars and tooltips.
    • Information functions return ten new items, including physical screen size.
    • ODBC: All 8 database interrogation routines now optionally allow SQL query string to be specified, to control exact records to retrieve.
    • Graphics text font encoding ("character set") can be specified on Windows.
    • Image importer now copes with old BITMAPCOREHEADER-format BMP files.
    • WSaveHTMLString and numeric equivalents updated. Greater reliance on CSS in preference to HTML, reduced output file size, improved appearance.
    • Several new stock icon and toolbar button images added.
  • CalComp/Lahey graphics emulations:
    • First major update since original introduction at v2.0 in 1998.
    • Code style updated to use more Fortran 9x contructs and follow conventions adopted in demos and visual tools sources (e.g. IMPLICIT NONE, intent declaration, etc.)
    • Better choice of and control over initial window size.
    • Font and symbol sizing now more appropriate to individual emulations (CalComp and Lahey/Graphoria differed).
    • IXKEY routine reports attempt to close window, rather than closing immediately.
    • Pre-compiled versions of each interface now supplied, ready for use with each supported compiler. Eliminates need to compile emulations, if customisation not required.
    • Both WiDE and the compile/link batch/script files now provide options to link one of the pre-compiled emulations.
    • Four demo programs added which demonstrate basic use of the emulations. All four derived from example programs, contemporary with the original interfaces.


  • News : Absoft Fortran 18.0 (Pro Fortran 2018)

31st March 2018

Absoft Fortran 18.0 is now supported, as of Winteracter 11.0h. While no changes were required to the Linux/Mac versions, Absoft's reorganisation of their Windows libraries has necessitated changes to WiDE and the documented Absoft/Winteracter linking procedures on Windows.


  • macOS High Sierra

16th October 2017

The Mac version of X/Winteracter has been updated at 11.0d to support the latest operating system release, macOS High Sierra. In particular:

  • Documentation invocation has been revised to address an AppleScript issue. This change affects both the visual tools' Help options and the WHelpFile subroutine.
  • The documentation's contents/index/navigation controls have been substantially rewritten to allow browsing in Safari 11.0 (High Sierra's default web browser). See the Help editor section of the Version 11.0 announcement, for more details.


  • Intel Fortran 18.0 (XE 2018)

26th September 2017 (Updated 16th October 2017)

The newly released Intel Fortran 18.0, which forms part of Intel Parallel Studio XE 2018, is now supported on all of Windows, Linux and macOS.

Two changes have been made to the Windows version of WiDE in the 11.0c update, to improve support for IVF 18.0:

  • The newly bundled Visual Studio 2015 Shell is now supported as a tools/libraries provider and debugger. As with previous bundled VS "Shell" versions, this differs in organisation to the standard VS2015 Community/Pro releases which were already supported by WiDE. The different VS2015 versions are now recognised automatically and the differing paths set up accordingly.
  • Invocation of the 32-bit compiler on 64-bit Windows has been reworked to avoid an unwelcome "remark" which the compiler otherwise generates on every compilation.

No changes are required to the existing Intel compatible versions of the Winteracter libraries or modules. Minor changes have been made to the documentation to reflect support for this compiler version.


  • Winteracter 11.0

3rd July 2017

Winteracter v11.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 11.0 release notes.

  • Simplified licensing:
    • Now just three Winteracter products, one each for Windows, Linux and Mac.
    • Each licence now includes libraries for all the currently supported compilers on the corresponding platform.
    • Both 32-bit and 64-bit support included in every licence.
  • GNU gfortran: Support substantially expanded. Compatible implementations now included with every licence:
    • Windows : Added support for GCC 7.x (32-bit and 64-bit). Supported versions: 4.7/4.9/5.x/6.x/7.x.
    • Linux : gfortran supported for the first time. 64-bit versions for use with 5.x/6.x/7.x.
    • Mac : gfortran supported for the first time. 64-bit versions for use with 5.x/6.x and (as of 11.0b) 7.x.
  • Lahey/GNU Fortran : Compatible with the latest LGF as shipped with LF 7.8 and Lahey/GNU Fortran Rainier edition.
  • Images, Icons, Bitmaps: Significant improvements in existing image handling routines and a substantial expansion of functionality:
    • Memory icons: A new group of memory icon handling routines, analogous to existing memory bitmap routines, but supporting transparency:
      • Create/clear/mirror/delete memory icons.
      • Copy raw colour/transparency data to/from memory icons.
      • Load/save ICO or PNG(RGBA) icon files to/from memory icons.
      • Load ICO or PNG icons from program resource.
      • Display memory icons in a screen drawable or memory bitmap.
    • Image data handling: A new group of routines which operate exclusively on arrays of integer colour data, which may optionally include 8-bit transparency:
      • Efficiently transfer raw pixel data directly to/from the screen or a memory bitmap.
      • A reworked version of the transparent image data blending routine, originally introduced at 9.0, offers major speed improvements on most Windows systems, particularly Vista onwards.
      • A routine to mirror raw colour data horizontally/vertically.
      • New image data save routine, which incorporates the functionality of the existing equivalent, but with a simpler calling interface and the addition of support for two previously unsupported Windows ICO formats (24-bit colour/1-bit transparency and 32-bit RGBA).
    • PostScript: Bit-image dumps are now significantly quicker on Windows.
    • Clipboard: Raw RGB image data can be copied direct to the clipboard as a bitmap. Conversely clipboard bitmaps can be retrieved as raw RGB data.
    • Icon load and display: The graphics import group now includes a routine to load an ICO or PNG(RGBA) icon file direct to the current drawable.
    • OpenGL: Three new image-related OpenGL support routines:
      • WglReadPixels: Get pixel data from an OpenGL drawable. Easier to use than glReadPixels.
      • WglSaveImage (save OpenGL drawable to a bit image file in BMP/PNG/JPEG/PCX format) and WglPrintImage (OpenGL drawable bit-image printer dump). Both access the drawable via OpenGL functions, overcoming problems associated with existing GDI/Xlib based equivalents.
    • Dynamic allocation The number of memory bitmaps/metafiles (and the new memory icons) are now dynamically selectable, allowing creation of more than the previous limits or release of unwanted storage.
    • Icons: A selection of 32-bit (RGBA) icons have been added, in PNG and ICO formats, at 32x32, 64x64 and 128x128 resolutions.
    • Memory bitmaps: The four existing image-data <‑> memory-bitmap transfer routines are now very significantly quicker on Windows. Up to 200-fold improvements observed.
    • Resource editor: PNG/ICO support upgraded.
  • Xft font rendering: Use of Xft font rendering has been extended on X Windows, to allow use of client side fonts in all Winteracter components:
    • Menus, status bars and tooltips now always use client side fonts. These fonts are end-user selectable via X resources, as for dialog fonts.
    • Editor windows now use client side fonts by default, but retain the option to revert to server side fonts.
    • Graphics text output to screen and memory bitmaps now uses client side fonts for all non-rotated output. Unlike server side fonts, these are fully rescalable, with no loss of quality. Given that they also support anti aliasing, this represents a major upgrade in the quality of graphics text output on X.
    • Program-defined graphics text fonts are now supported on X, as for Windows. Applications are no longer limited to Courier, Helvetica and Times.
    • Any client side font now selectable in editor windows.
    • When use of Xft font rendering enabled in dialogs (as introduced at v10.0), text in static dialog controls can now include "8-bit" characters (ISO Latin1 character codes 161-255).
  • Preferences/configuration: Major rework of visual tools' preference/configuration management:
    • Location: Configuration data is now stored in the current user's application data directory. This avoids permission issues and ensures that settings transfer from one installation to another.
    • Separation: Each of WiDE, WED, ResEdit, HelpEd, GraphEd, SetupEd and wsearch now have their own configuration file, providing clearer separation. Several tools have reduced memory requirements as a result.
    • Load/Save: WiDE, ResEdit, HelpEd and GraphEd automatically save preference/configuration changes, eliminating need for load/save options and prompts.
    • Installation directory independence: WiDE configuration data reworked to eliminate reliance on hardcoded Winteracter installation directory, allowing reuse across installation to different directories. Also avoids accidental removal of Winteracter library or required compiler switches, which are now added automatically at build time.
  • Page Setup: The PostScript and Windows Print Manager page setup common dialogs have been upgraded:
    • A "Centre" button moves the image to the middle of the page.
    • A "Scale" checkbox and associated percentage integer spinner field allow the 4 margins to be changed simultaneously in proportion. Simplifies margin adjustment, without loss of aspect ratio.
    • Margin fields now have spinners.
    • Margins validated on exit. Overlaps are reported to the user.
    • The Print Manager dialog now interrogates and enforces the current printer's minimum margins.
  • 3D modelling:
    • W3D files use a new tagged format. The new format is extensible, allowing model information to be added in future, without introducing further format incompatibilities. It is also documented for the first time, allowing development of W3D readers/generators. File size is also reduced, in many cases. Note: Pre-v11.0 W3D files can still be read.
    • New point cloud rendering method. Points can be displayed in part-specific colours.
    • 2D projected equivalents of 3D model co-ordinates can be reported.
    • Routine added to directly control facet outline colour/thickness. Same routine can set point cloud colour.
  • Message handling: Two useful changes:
    • FieldChanged messages now also report message sub-type, clearly separating focus and value changes.
    • The "Menu" key (aka the "Application" or "Context Menu" key) is now detectable in KeyDown messages.
  • Information functions: New functions added and existing functions extended to interrogate:
    • Names of Windows printers used in editor/grid windows.
    • Current program's subsystem, on Windows (console or windows).
    • Type, handle/identifier and size of OpenGL drawable.
    • Multiple 3D model vertices in single call.
    • Number of items in a menu field.
    • Memory icon information.
    • User's application data directory (for config data, preferences, etc.).
  • Editor windows:
    • Any installed font now selectable, on both Windows and X.
    • 9-point Console font option.
    • Management of "context" menu reworked on X to align behaviour with Windows.
    • X version supports anti-aliased client-side fonts (see Xft font rendering).
  • WiDE:
    • Visual Studio 2017 can now be used as a tools/libs provider and debugger with IVF 17 (update 4 or later).
    • Make now checks for circular dependencies.
    • Redesigned/unified compiler selection dialog.
    • Added support for GNU gfortran on Linux/Mac.
    • GNU gfortran configuration on Windows adds separate GCC 7.x option.
    • Console font size configurable.
    • Windows manifest creation expanded for exec level and compatibility settings.
    • Extract Routines now has module, block data and main program options.
    • Fewer configuration related prompts.
    • Automatic command prompt selection on Linux now gives priority to Gnome or KDE terminal over xterm.
    • Separate icons for WED and resource editor windows, in separate window layout, assist window identification.
    • Added support for Lahey Fortran 7.8 and Lahey/GNU Fortran Rainier edition.
    • Added support fo Absoft Pro Fortran 2018 (18.0) as of 11.oh.
  • Resource editor:
    • Image editor: Support added for 32-bit (RGBA) ICO/PNG and 24-bit (1-bit transparency) ICO icons.
    • Menu editor: Item properties and accelerator key dialogs merged.
    • Toolbar editor: Faster screen updating on Windows.
    • Import Image: PNG bitmaps/icons can now be added to resource.
  • 3D model viewer:
    • Point cloud rendering option.
    • Copy model view to clipboard.
    • Convert earlier W3D files to new tagged format.
    • Additional viewing colour options.
    • Popup View menu accessible via the "Menu" key.
    • WglSaveImage and WglPrintImage used to save/print from OpenGL renderer, for more reliable results.
    • Print/Export image options maintain model view's aspect ratio.
  • WED:
    • X version now uses client side fonts, by default.
    • Improved support for editing web related file types.
    • Syntax highlighting extended.
  • Help editor:
    • Several enhancements to HTML/CHM file generation.
    • X version uses client side fonts in topic editor.
    • At 11.0d, important changes to the HTML/Javascript code generator, with implications for customer help projects and X/Winteracter documentation:
      • Contents/index/navigation controls restructured to substantially reduce reliance on frames. Works round "cross-origin policy" issues in Safari 11.0, Chrome and Opera, which blocked these controls, when browing help files via local file system.
      • Appearance of contents/index controls restyled.
      • Code style modernised (e.g. greater reliance on CSS) and optimised.
      • Built-in back/forward buttons added to navigation controls.
      • Option to continue using old code format, where preferred.
      • Note: These changes do not affect HTML Help (CHM) help files, so the above changes are mainly relevant to Linux/Mac users. However, given that HTML/Javascript help files generated by HelpEd can be deployed on any platform, these improvements may also be relevant to Windows HelpEd users.
  • PlotConv: Better support for 24-bit and 32-bit ICO icon files. Faster printing/converting of bit image formats to PostScript/EPS on Windows.
  • Context menu: String, numeric, combo box and grid fields on X Windows now have a "context" (aka "right-click") menu, offering same Cut/Copy/Paste/Delete/Select All options as the Windows equivalent.
  • Presentation graphics: New variants of line plot and 2D/3D polyline routines provide control over colour of every line segment.
  • OpenGL: Stencil buffer depth now selectable.
  • Operating System interface: Directory search routine. Binary i/o routines accept complex arguments.
  • Debug/error reporting: IDebugComplex added. Debug level 1 sensitive to executable subsystem. Improved bitmap/metafile/icon related error reporting.
  • Desktop: New Linux/Mac option to create Desktop shortcut, on installation.
  • Demos: Nine new demonstration programs plus many improvements to existing demos.

  • Mac gfortran 7.x

11th September 2017

As of Winteracter 11.0b, gfortran 7.x is now supported on the Mac. This is is implemented alongside the existing GCC 5.x/6.x support which was introduced at the initial 11.0 release. In addition to a new library and modules compiled with GCC 7, WiDE has been updated to provide a choice between the GCC 5.x/6.x and 7.x implementations. These changes align the Mac version with the Windows and Linux implementations, which already included GCC 7 support as of v11.0.

Existing Mac X/Winteracter 11.0 users can obtain the latest update in the usual way, by following the download instructions in their 11.0 licence email.


  • Absoft Fortran 17.0 (Pro Fortran 2017)

1st February 2017

Winteracter 10.10 has been successfully tested with Absoft Fortran 17.0. No changes are required to Winteracter to support this compiler release.


  • GNU gfortran (Windows)

31st January 2017

The current GNU gfortran version of Winteracter for Windows has been successfully tested with recent gfortran versions through to 6.2. These versions of gfortran do not appear to suffer from the inter-version compatibility problems which have previously forced separate versions of Winteracter to be built for each supported GCC release. Specifically, the version of Winteracter built with GCC 5.2 appears to be compatible with all of GCC 5.1 through 6.2. As of the 10.10f update, the documentation and WiDE have been updated to reflect this broader compatibility.


  • XQuartz and Open Motif

22nd November 2016

I.S.S. has built Open Motif 2.3.6 from source on the Mac, incorporating a patch which addresses the libXt issues introduced in both versions 2.7.9 and and 2.7.10 of XQuartz, the Mac X server. Changes to the libXt build method in each of these XQuartz releases created problems for all Mac Motif users. Unfortunately, the solutions were different for each of 2.7.9 and 2.7.10. The patched 2.3.6 build eliminates the libXt compatibility issue, rendering the 2.7.9/2.7.10-dependent workarounds redundant. It also addresses a problem with 32-bit binaries running on XQuartz 2.7.8 and later.

As of v10.10e, the Mac version of X/Winteracter is now built with the patched Open Motif 2.3.6 library. Hence, the X/Winteracter visual tools are now compatible with XQuartz 2.7.10 or later. Open Motif 2.3.6 is also now the recommended version for development with X/Winteracter on the Mac. Users downloading the Mac version of X/Winteracter 10.10e, or later, should also upgrade their Open Motif library accordingly.

The new Open Motif 2.3.6 build can be downloaded from our Open Motif page. Both 32-bit and 64-bit builds are available to download. The old versions (2.2.3, 2.3.1 and 2.3.2) have been removed from that page.


  • Intel Fortran 17.0 (XE 2017)

16th September 2016

The newly released Intel Fortran 17.0, which forms part of Intel Parallel Studio XE 2017, has been successfully tested with Winteracter 10.10, on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. No changes are required to the existing Intel compatible versions of the Winteracter libraries or modules. A minor change has been made to the Windows version of WiDE, to ensure correct operation of the 32-bit 17.0 compiler on 64-bit platforms. This is included as a fix in the Winteracter 10.10d update, along with minor documentation updates to reflect support for this compiler version.


  • Winteracter 10.10

18th November 2015

Winteracter v10.10 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 10.10 release notes.

  • Pre-defined resources : Winteracter's common dialogs, built-in menus/toolbars/dialogs and icon/button images have all received substantial attention in this release:
    • Program access to pre-defined resources simplified. New, standardised identifier names for every item in the supplied pre-defined resource files and for every built-in menu item. The new identifiers are available automatically, via the WINTERACTER module.
    • Fields in most common dialogs are accessible at runtime for the first time, via the new standardised identifiers, allowing customisation/localisation of field labels.
    • WED allows insertion of the new pre-defined resource identifiers into source, via a categorised treeview.
    • A new unified common Page Setup dialog for all types of PostScript printer output. Provides margin selection/preview, paper size, number of copies, orientation and destination.
    • Page Setup dialog, as used for all Windows Print Manager output, now includes name of currently selected printer and a number of copies field.
    • 26 new toolbar button bitmaps. Many existing button bitmaps redesigned to improve image quality. Approx 50 256-colour 32x32 icons added.
    • Text editor and grid window toolbars use redesigned buttons, giving crisper images. Large (32x32) toolbar button option also added.
    • Nearly all common dialogs and built-in dialogs now share same positioning logic, which also allows caller to control their relative position. New WDialogShowCommon routine also allows program-supplied dialogs to be displayed using same positioning logic, further improving consistency.
    • Separate dialogs for printer PostScript and EPS output, reflecting logical differences between the two types of PostScript ouput.
    • Several other hardcopy/export option dialogs have been updated/simplified.
    • On Linux and OS X, all hardcopy common dialogs allow for local unit determination (inches or millimetres), by interrogating system locale information (already supported on Windows).
    • Date selector common dialog now uses day/month names retrieved from system locale information. Local day/month names also accessible via new routines in Date/Time subroutine group.
  • Dynamic floating menus : New pair of WMenuFloatLoad/WMenuFloatShow routines allow greater runtime control over contents of floating ("popup") menus.
  • Print margins : All types of Windows Print Manager and PostScript output now allow print margins to be specified directly. Applies to all of graphics hardcopy, image dumps, text editor and grid printing. All PostScript output mechanisms now therefore allow paper size to be specified too (choice of A0-A5, B0-B5, B0-B5/JIS and various US sizes).
  • Polylines in 3D models : 3D model descriptions can now include polylines:
    • Polylines can be displayed by the OpenGL renderer, WglShow, via any of the supported rendition methods (the software renderer W3dShow also supports polylines, but in wireframe mode only).
    • Support for polylines exactly mirrors that for facets. Both object types share the same vertex and material lists. Learning curve for existing users should therefore be minimal.
    • The 3D model exporter, W3dSave, can include polylines in both W3D and DXF output.
    • The 3D model importer, W3dLoad, identifies polylines in W3D and DXF output, including DXF files created by 3rd-party applications.
    • The 3D text routines now allow creation of lightweight polyline-based output, based on the Simplex Roman vector font.
  • DXF Various enhancements to DXF support:
    • 2D DXF graphics driver now generates light weight polylines (LWPOLYLINE), resulting in reduced output file size and faster rendering in third party importers. Redundant layer information eliminated.
    • Colour selection in both 2D and 3D DXF exporters is more accurate and quicker.
    • Some support for BLOCK/INSERT entities has been added to the 3D DXF importer, W3dLoad. Includes support for nested blocks. Allows a wider range of 3rd-party 3D DXF models to be imported.
  • Editors : In addition to the various pre-defined resource and print margin enhancements described above, editor windows now feature:
    • Substantially improved printing in the X Windows version.
    • Optional command line field can be placed at top of window and now has a 'Go' button for mouse users. Keyboard navigation between command line and editor window improved.
    • A Goto Line menu option/dialog.
  • Treeviews : "Single-click to expand" and "Double-click on branch selects default button" styles added.
  • Transparent images and alpha blending : The raster image file driver now supports creation of 32-bit RGBA (transparent) PNG files. In addition to supporting creation of images with a transparent background, alpha blending is also supported. WRGBTblend, an alpha blending function, has also been added.
  • Image dump option load/save : IGrPrintImageOptLoad/IGrPrintImageOptSave added to load/save bit-image printing options.
  • Information functions : An assortment of general additions/improvements have been made to the interrogation functions in the IF group. These include reporting of the local measurement system on Linux and OS X.
  • Operating system interface A new set of routines provide basic inter-process communication, when invoking an external command line which either writes to standard output or reads from standard input. The invoking program can read from or write to that program. This functionality is completely contained within four simple routines (IOsCommandOpen, IOsCommandRead, IOsCommandWrite and IOsCommandClose). [Note: The Linux/OS X versions of the directory information functions now rely on these internally, improving performance. The Linux/OS X directory and file selector dialogs also benefit from these internally.]
  • 64-bit OS X support : Mac 32/64-bit licences are now available for Intel Fortran or Absoft Pro Fortran on OS X.
  • GNU Fortran : Support for GNU gfortran 5.2 has been added on Windows. Supported versions are now 4.7/4.9/5.2 (Note: 4.8 support has been dropped).
  • Lahey Fortran : Version 10.10 is compatible with the latest Lahey LF 7.7 and Lahey/GNU Fortran Silverthrone releases.
  • Absoft Pro Fortran 2016 : Version 10.10 has been successfully tested with the Windows, Linux and OS X versions of Absoft Fortran 16.0 (Pro Fortran 2016).
  • Visual tools : All of the visual tools benefit from several of the enhancements described above, including improved print/export dialog functionality and cleaner toolbar buttons. Tool-specific enhancements also include:
    • WiDE :
      • VS2015 is now supported as a tools/libraries provider with IVF 15.0 or later.
      • Two new 64-bit OS X Intel and Absoft compiler options.
      • GNU gfortran support on Windows updated to include v5.2.
      • Improved support for non-GNU libraries when using the GNU tools on Windows.
    • Resource editor :
      • New "Field List" option in dialog editor displays a summary of the identifier, position/size and type of every field in current dialog, displayed in a modeless grid window, which provides search, print and clipboard functionality.
      • Several toolbar editor improvements, including palette optimisation and improved options for managing spare button images.
      • Preferences dialog reworked and expanded. Includes an option to set default font for new dialogs.
    • WED :
      • "Open Multiple" menu option.
      • Search history in "Find All" dialog.
      • Pre-defined resource identifier insertion (see above).
      • Source code and quotation HTML tag insertion.
    • PlotConv : Improved EPS support. CGM, HP-GL and HP-GL/2 files can be converted to transparent PNG(rgba) format.
    • 3Dview : Support for polylines in W3D and DXF 3D model files. Closer inspection of model detail allowed.
    • HelpEd : Favorites tab option when generating CHM files. External links in HTML help files can be opened in new tab/window.
    • XWcolour : Source code now supplied.
  • Documentation : Numerous additions and improvements to Programming Guide and Programming Reference. Upgraded documentation of pre-defined resources, such as common dialogs and editor/grid window menus. Message descriptions updated and reorganised. Favorites tab added, on Windows.
  • Error handling : Extensive overhaul of library's internal error handling. Several new error codes added.
  • Demos : 8 new example programs, plus many more updated.
  • Windows 8.1/10 : Latest versions of Windows now formally supported.


  • News : Windows 10

18th August 2015 (Updated 18th November 2015)

Winteracter 10.0 has been extensively tested on the recently released version of Windows 10. We are pleased to report that no significant compatibility issues have been encountered. No special update appears to be required to support this version of Windows. Please keep us informed, in the unlikely event that you encounter any issues which appear to relate specifically to Windows 10.

Formal support for Windows 10 has been added, as of Winteracter 10.10. This mainly consists of updates to platform-specific documentation.


  • News : Absoft Fortran 15.0 (Pro Fortran 2015)

21st October 2014

The newly released Absoft Fortran 15.0 (a.k.a. "Pro Fortran 2015") has been successfully tested with Winteracter 10.0, on Windows and Linux. No changes are required to the existing Absoft compatible versions of the Winteracter libraries or modules. Similarly, our visual tools require no program changes to support the 15.0 compiler. The Winteracter 10.0c update includes minor documentation updates to reflect support for this compiler version.


  • Intel Fortran 15.0 (XE 2015)

29th August 2014 (Updated 21st October 2014)

Intel Fortran 15.0 (a.k.a. "XE 2015") has been successfully tested with Winteracter 10.0, on all of Windows, Linux and OS X. No changes are required to the existing Intel compatible versions of the Winteracter libraries or modules. Similarly, our visual tools require no program changes to support the 15.0 compiler. The Winteracter 10.0c update includes minor documentation updates to reflect support for this compiler version.

The Windows version of WiDE detects IVF 15.0 automatically, where installed. Simply select version 15.0 from WiDE's "IVF configuration" dialog, in the usual way (accessible via the Compilers dialog, under the Settings menu).


  • GNU gfortran 4.9 and and Lahey/GNU Fortran Lassen edition

21st August 2014

Support for GNU gfortran 4.9 has been added to the Windows versions at v10.0b, along with support for the recently announced Lahey/GNU Fortran "Lassen editon" (which also forms part of LF7.6). The new Lahey/GNU product is based on gfortran 4.9.

Also, as of 10.0b, the range of GCC versions supported by every Windows Winteracter licence has been expanded to include all of 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9, allowing any of the corresponding versions of GNU gfortran to be used.. The Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE) has been updated to allow selection of the corresponding GCC version, when one of the generic GNU gfortran or Lahey/GNU compiler options are selected.


  • Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)

11th August 2014

X/Winteracter 10.0 has been successfully tested on OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). The Mac version is therefore suitable for use on OS X versions 10.5 through 10.9. Winteracter's documentation has been updated accordingly at v10.0a. Additionally, changes to the X version's field sizing formula provide better results when either Linux or Mac X/Winteracter-based applications are run on the XQuartz X server on Mavericks.

Versions of X/Winteracter are available for use with either Intel Fortran or Absoft Pro Fortran on Mavericks. In particular, compatibility with the OS X version of Intel Fortran 14 has been verified for the first time, though earlier compiler versions can also be used. As always, new licence and upgrade prices can be found on our Price list page. (Note: The lack of a readily available Mavericks-compatible g95 binary, means that the supplied X/Winteracter library for this compiler isn't currently suitable for use on Mavericks.)


  • Winteracter 10.0

13th May 2014 (last updated 20th August 2014)

Winteracter v10.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 10.0 release notes.
  • Electronic delivery : Delivery, installation and licensing has been extensively reworked to allow Winteracter to be delivered electronically, via download from our web site. The wupdate updater has also been retired. Updates will in future be delivered as full product downloads.
  • JPEG : Image handling in both the library and visual tools has been extended to include JPEG files:
    • JPEG files can be loaded or saved via the same mechanisms as our existing BMP, PNG, PCX, ICO and CUR image support. Existing programs threfore require only minor modifications to add JPEG support.
    • All of WBitmapLoad, WBitmapSave, IGrLoadImage, IGrSaveImage, IGrLoadImageData and IGrSaveImageData can load/save JPEG files.
    • IGrFileInfo recognises JPEG files.
    • WGrConvertImage supports JPEG files as input or output.
    • Image quality is controllable when saving JPEG files.
    • The raster image file driver can now generate JPEG files.
    • The image editor can load/edit/save JPEG files (up to 128x128 pixels, as for all image formats).
    • The toolbar editor can add JPEG images to a toolbar (Note: These are stored as BMP files in the resource file.)
    • Several of the other visual tools now support JPEG too. The array data viewer, WinterView, supports JPEG both as an input data format and as a graphic export format. 3Dview also supports JPEG as an export format.
  • New GUI style on Linux and Mac OS X : User interface appearance has been substantially updated in X/Winteracter :
    • Dialogs/grids now use anti-aliased XFT (client-side) fonts. These are the same fonts as used by desktop environments such as KDE, Gnome, Untiy, etc.
    • New "flat" GUI style substantially modernises the appearance of dialogs, grids, status bars and scroll bars.
    • New look radio buttons and check boxes, plus minor improvements to the appearance of progress bars, tabs and combo boxes.
    • No program changes required to use new GUI style.
    • Dialog and menu fonts separately configurable.
    • All of the visual tools benefit from these changes.
    • See the new style in the screen images on the X Windows on Linux and Mac OS X page. Pictures have also been added to selected pages in the Image Gallery, such as the Combined window/dialog page. Or download the latest X version of the demonstration program.
  • Tools source code : The sources for the three main redistributable visual tools are now included, namely the 3D model viewer (3Dview), the array data viewer (WinterView) and the graphics file viewer/converter (PlotConv). The redistribution licence has been revised to allow creation of derived works, based on these sources. This source also acts as a substantial programming example resource, adding over 8000 lines of code illustrating the use of a very wide range of Winteracter functionality, in production applications.
  • Dual 32/64-bit Linux licences : Following the successful introduction of dual 32/64-bit licences for Windows at v9.20, we are pleased to offer equivalent licences for Linux.
  • TSV files : The grid load/save functions now support Tab Separated Value (TSV) files in addition to the existing CSV support, as do the 2D array-save routines (e.g. WSaveCSVString). The WinterView data viewer now supports TSV files too. TSV files are typically quicker to load and save, since they eliminate the need for quote processing. Such files are already supported by third party software, such as office applications.
  • Editor : A set of line-oriented editor manipulation routines have been added, which substantially simplify access to text in editor windows. Five new routines are provided to get/put/delete a line, set a line as "current" and interrogate a line's length. The number of lines in a file and the current line number can also be interrogated. Various other minor improvements have also been made to the editor, such as a "Find previous" search option and menu options for fore/back colour in RTF editor windows. Editor-changed notification message added at 10.0a.
  • Bitmaps/image processing : Density can now be specified when saving images in BMP, PCX, PNG, JPEG, ICO, or CUR format. Density in image files can also be interrogated. Various minor optimisations have been implemented which improve efficiency and/or quality when processing bit images. Among various improvements, conversion of images with more than 256 colours to ico/cur format gives much better results. Advice has been added to the documentation regarding conversion of bitmaps to icons/cursors via any of ResEdit, PlotConv or user programs.
  • Operating system interface : Improvements to the o.s. interface include the introduction of a registry enumeration routine, identification of administrator/superuser, operating system "bitness" interrogation, exit code reporting from spawned sub-processes and other minor enhancements. Documentation for these routines has also been reorganised into functional sub-groups.
  • Resource editor : The resource editor has been improved in various respects:
    • A new "Find" option has been added. This greatly simplifies resource location, particularly when working with large resource files. The Find option offers a choice of resource types and/or properties to search. It accepts partial search strings. Where a search matches multiple resources, a list of matching resources is offered.
    • Documentation has been substantially reorganised, adopting the same organizational model as WiDE, WED and others. As a result, each resource editor Help option now leads directly to relevant documentation, greatly reducing the need for additional navigation after a topic has opened.
    • Field style/property selection in the dialog editor has been streamlined. For every field type, the "General ... Properties" and "... Style Properties" dialogs have been merged into a single "Properties" dialog.
    • The image editor can now now edit 24-bit colour images, in addition to 16/256 colours.
    • A new Resource File Properties dialog reports the total number of menus, dialogs, fields, toolbars, images, identifiers and user-defined include files used by the current resource file.
    • A number of other minor improvements benefit icon editing, identifier management, internal data storage and toolbar button creation.
  • PlotConv : The graphics file viewer/converter benefits from a number of enhancements:
    • JPEG files can be be viewed, printed and converted to/from other formats.
    • File conversion now supports creation of transparent images in ICO, CUR or PNG (rgba) formats. Conversion to ICO/CUR includes palette optimisation, giving better colour reproduction in 256-colour files.
    • Aspect ratio can now be easily maintained when converting between formats.
    • As noted above, source code is supplied.
  • Common dialogs : Two additional common dialogs have been added, allowing selection of graphical markers or colour from a fixed palette, respectively. Several of the hardcopy options dialogs have been simplified. The X directory selector has also been improved.
  • Dialogs and grids : Various minor improvements.
  • Application Wizard : A standalone version of the wizard is now included, for the benefit of users who prefer to develop outside of WiDE.
  • GNU gfortran : As of 10.0b, all Windows licences now include support for gfortran versions 4.7, 4.8 and 4.9.
  • Lahey/GNU Fortran : As of 10.0b, the newly released Lahey/GNU Fortran "Lassen edition" (based on GCC 4.9) is also supported, as is LF 7.6 which includes the same compiler.
  • WiDE : Various minor enhancements to our development environment:
    • Improved compiler/debugger configuration on Linux and Mac OS X.
    • Browse Files provides a recent files list.
    • Finer control over case conversion in Fortran source reformatter.
    • On Windows, VS2013 can now be selected as the tools/libraries provider and debugger, with Intel Visual Fortran 14.
    • A "clean project" option, added at v10.0a.
  • Documentation : Numerous general improvements and additions to the documentation.
  • Licence Agreement : The Licence Agreement now allows installation on two computers, without specifying the types of those computers (provided only one is in use at any one time, as previously).
  • Linux Desktop : The installer now creates a set of Desktop shortcuts on Linux, simplifying access to the Winteracter tools and documentation in desktop environments like KDE and Gnome.
  • Open Motif 2.3 on Mac OS X : The Mac version has been updated to use Open Motif 2.3, aligning it with the Linux version which already used this version of OM. This change allows the visual tools to use XFT fonts, as noted above. OM 2.3 also provides better mouse wheel support. An OM2.3 download has been added to our Open Motif page.
  • Fortran I/O : The Fortran unit numbers used internally by the library can now be interrogated and redefined.
  • DVF/CVF For the benefit of customers who are still migrating from Digital/Compaq Visual Fortran to Intel Visual Fortran, 32-bit support for DVF/CVF is now included in our existing IVF-compatible dual-target 32/64-bit licence.
  • OS X MavericksAs of the 10.0a update, the Mac version has been successfully tested on OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). The supplied installation notes and "getting started" documentation has been updated accordingly.


  • Lahey Fortran 7.5

1/July/2013

Lahey Fortran 7.5 has just been announced. This release combines the 32-bit Lahey/Fujitsu and 32/64-bit Lahey/GNU Fortran compilers, for Windows platforms. Winteracter 9.30 is already fully compatible with this release, offering support for both compilers in a single licence.

Users of earlier Lahey Winteracter versions can upgrade, at the prices shown on our Price list page. Each licence supports both the Fujitsu and GNU compilers, on Windows.


  • Absoft Pro Fortran 2013 (v13.0)

24/June/2013

As of the 9.30b update, Winteracter now supports Absoft Pro Fortran 2013 (compiler version 13.0) on all platforms.

The Winteracter libraries and associated modules are now built with Pro Fortran 13.0. The resulting libraries/modules are also compatible with Pro Fortran v11.5 ("Pro Fortran 2012") on all platforms. All except the 64-bit Windows version are also compatible with the earlier 11.0 compiler.

Since the 13.0 compiler is not binary compatible with the earlier 10.x compilers, these older compiler versions are no longer supported by the Absoft-compatible versions of Winteracter.

Existing Winteracter 9.30 licence holders can update in the usual way, via our Updates page. Users of earlier Winteracter versions can upgrade to the current release at the prices shown on our Price list page.


  • Winteracter 9.30

8th March 2013 (last updated 24th June 2013)

Winteracter v9.30 is now available. This is a minor update mainly intended to provide new compiler/platform support. A small number of new features are also included. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 9.30 release notes.
  • Lahey/GNU Fortran: Support for the new Lahey compiler product. Based on gfortran 4.7, Lahey/GNU Fortran provides integration with Visual Studio, support for creation of 32-bit and 64-bit Windows programs, easy installation and a command line front-end which will be familiar to existing Lahey users. Winteracter v9.30 provides both 32-bit and 64-bit support for LGF. Support has also been added to WiDE, including automatic identification of the compiler installation, eliminating reliance on environment variables. Our existing Lahey Winteracter licence for Windows adds 32-bit support for LGF and a new 32/64-bit licence also adds 64-bit support. Customers who hold a Windows Lahey Winteracter licence can upgrade to either licence.
  • Windows 8: The Windows version has been successfully tested on Windows 8, which is now an officially supported platform. Some minor changes have been made to the installation procedure and documentation. No Windows 8 related changes have been made to the library. Note: Previous versions appear to work with Windows 8, but official support starts as of Winteracter v9.30.
  • Open64 Fortran: All Linux versions now include support for the open source Open64 Fortran compiler. Both 32-bit and 64-bit applications can be created with this compiler. Open64 support is included with each Linux licence, in addition to g95 support.
  • g95 0.93: Following the resumption of active development and support of the g95 compiler late in 2012, support has been updated to the newest g95 0.93 "Stable Oct 2012" release on Linux.
  • Absoft Pro Fortran 13.0: Support added as of v9.30b.
  • WiDE: Various minor improvements:
    • New in 9.30a : Visual Studio 2010 or 2012 can now be used as the external debugger when developing applications with Intel Visual Fortran 12 ("Intel Visual Fortran Composer XE 2011") or 13 ("Intel Visual Fortran Composer XE 2013"). Customers who have the initial 9.30 release, for use with Intel Visual Fortran, can download an update here.
    • Automatic Location of Lahey/Fujitsu compilers on Windows, eliminating reliance on PATH/LIB environment variables.
    • Additional window layout option of combined project/console + floating editor.
    • Console word wrap option.
    • Default compiler/tools switches now set separately from current project switches.
    • A new 'Open File' main menu option allows non-project files to be opened.
    • More file extensions recognised as Fortran file types (specifically .f03, .f08 and .ftn).
    • Support added for Lahey/GNU Fortran (Windows) and Open64 Fortran (Linux).
  • File selector: Various improvements have been made to the file selector used on Linux and Mac OS X. New features include a directory creation button, directory sorting options, file properties display and other changes intended to bring functionality closer to that of the Windows equivalent. These changes benefit all X programs which use our file selector, including all of our visual tools.
  • SVG: Files generated by the SVG driver are now compatible with modern web browsers, such as IE9/10, Firefox and Chrome.
  • IOsDirInfo now offers additional file date/time or size sort order options. It can also report file sizes in kilobytes instead of bytes. The Linux/Mac version now accepts multiple space-separated file specs.
  • Dialogs : Useful minor additions to dialog handling:
    • A new WindowDialog routine allows the dialog which appears in a combined window/dialog to be changed without having to close/re-open a window. This includes changing the dialog in a sub-window of a split window. The same routine also supports dialog identifier reassignment, allowing simultaneous copies of the same dialog in multiple combined windows/dialogs.
    • Two new routines allow conversion between dialog units and pixels.
    • The "flat" field style is now supported in group boxes and push-buttons on X Windows.
    • Dialog size can now interrogated in pixels.
  • The size and position of the Windows taskbar can be interrogated.
  • WED: Syntax highlighting extended to support Fortran 2003. A duplicate-line option has been added.


  • Intel Fortran 13 and VS2012

18/Sept/2012

As of the 9.20a update, Winteracter formally supports Intel Fortran 13.0 (a.k.a. "Composer XE 2013") on all supported platforms.

Since Intel Visual Fortran 13.0 now supports Visual Studio 2012, the Windows version of WiDE has been updated at 9.20a to support VS2012 as a tools/libraries provider with the 13.0 compiler.

Existing Winteracter 9.20 licence holders can update in the usual way, via our Updates page. Users of earlier Winteracter versions can upgrade to the current release at the prices shown on our Price list page.


  • Dual-target 32/64-bit licences

June 28th 2012 (updated at v10.0 May/2014 and at v10.10 Nov 2015)

Dual-target 32/64-bit Winteracter licences are now available for each of Windows, Linux and OS X, offering support for creation of both program types in a single licence.

Dual-target licences are available for use with Intel or Absoft Fortran on Windows, Linux or OS X. Equivalent licences are also available for use with Lahey Fortran compilers on Windows or Linux. Each licence also includes support for open source compilers.

The dual-target licence includes all the usual Winteracter tools and documentation, but offers the following specific benefits:

  • Both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries are included for use with the chosen commercial Fortran compiler (Intel, Absoft or Lahey).
  • On Windows, 32-bit and 64-bit libraries are included for use with GNU gfortran.
  • On Linux, 32-bit and 64-bit libraries are included for use with each of g95 and Open64 Fortran.
  • On OS X, a 32-bit library is included for use with g95.
  • Both 32-bit and 64-bit Winteracter-based applications can be built on either 32-bit or 64-bit platforms, provided the corresponding compiler and library components are also installed. For example, this includes the ability to build 64-bit applications on 32-bit Windows systems. (A 64-bit Windows or Linux system is required to run 64-bit applications).
  • Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the redistributable Winteracter tools are supplied, namely PlotConv, 3Dview, WinterView and (on Windows) the generic installer.
  • Previous restrictions on how to install separate 32-bit and 64-bit licences have been eliminated, simplifying both installation and development. Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit application development can be installed in a single operation.


  • Winteracter 9.20

June 28th 2012 (updated at v9.20a, 18/Sept/2012)

Winteracter v9.20 is now available. This adds various minor enhancements. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 9.20 release notes.
  • 32/64-bit Windows: Both installation and licencing of 32/64-bit Windows versions of Winteracter have been reworked. A Winteracter licence now solely determines the type of Windows programs which can be created with that licence. It is no longer also related to the type of Windows platform upon which programs are developed. Specific changes are as follows:
    • A new dual target 32/64-bit licence has been added, which allows creation of both program types on the same computer.
    • The installed visual tools now match the "bitness" of the operating system, i.e. 32-bit tools are installed on Win32 Windows systems and 64-bit tools are installed on Windows x64.
    • Any Windows Winteracter licence can be installed on any supported Windows operating system, regardless of the bitness of each.
    • Multiple Windows Winteracter licences can be installed in any order, regardless of target bitness.
    • Updates for Windows will now be supplied in a single download, rather than separate 32-bit and 64-bit files as previously.
    • When separate 32-bit and 64-bit licences are installed together, both can now be updated together and in any order. The new dual 32/64-bit licence can also be updated in a single operation.
  • GNU gfortran on Windows: All Windows licences now include support for GNU gfortran 4.6, in addition to the target commercial compiler. Both 32-bit and 64-bit GNU gfortran are supported. Every Winteracter licence, on all platforms, therefore now includes support for an open source Fortran compiler.
  • Sound: WPlaySound has been upgraded:
    • Since the ALSA interface has superseded the earlier OSS "standard" on Linux, WPlaySound now supports both. ALSA is now used by default.
    • Sound playback is now supported on the Mac.
    • MP3 playback now supported on Windows and Mac OS X.
    • Asynchronous playback now supported on Linux and Mac.
  • External process management: Functionality of IOsCommand process execution routine substantially expanded. New routines to check state of and kill processes invoked via IOsCommand.
  • Date picker: Calendar-style date selection common dialog.
  • Line style: Line join and cap style now supported by graphics primitives in all types of output. Line width control added on a per-dataset basis to the presentation graphics routines.
  • Graphics text:
    • New "natural" aspect ratio option added to graphics text. This allows text to remain at a constant aspect ratio regardless of the physical aspect ratio of the graphics area (avoids excessively squeezed/stretched text).
    • Better font fallback handling on X to take account of increasingly common omission of "standard" X fonts from default Linux installations. Support for commonly installed URW fonts added on X. Better graphics text font choice on Mac X server.
    • Longer graphics text strings allowed, when using driver-specific fonts.
  • Dialogs: More control over behaviour of range-checked numeric fields. Improved double click handling in X version. Selectively disable identifier validation for faster treeview creation.
  • Editor windows: More keystrokes supported in X versions. Improved font selection and error reporting.
  • WiDE:
    • New Library-project option allows creation of static library instead of a program.
    • Kill project option, to terminate programs which have stopped responding.
    • Option to open a command window in project directory. Better location of terminal program on Linux and Mac OS X.
    • Support for GNU gfortran added on Windows. Choice of external debugger (e.g. gdb or Insight).
    • Improved auto-location of Motif and X libraries on Linux and Mac, to cope with increasing variability of their installation directories.
    • On Windows, 64-bit programs can now be built on 32-bit platforms.
    • Lahey/Windows users now have choice of fdb or winfdb debuggers.
  • WED: Insert Winteracter-routine option now also allows selection from alphabetical list. Better editor font selection. More editing keystrokes supported in X version. Match count in Find All.
  • Licence Agreement: Winteracter Licence Agreement now allows installation on two computers (a "primary" and a "secondary" computer), so long as only one is being used at any one time. Other minor changes have been made. We've added the new Licence Agreement to our web site, to allow it to be previewed.
  • X GUI font: Better GUI font selection on X, copes with increasingly common absence of Adobe fonts in default Linux installations. Program control over default GUI font size. Improved dialog field size calculation ensures that text will be more likely to fit regardless of font.
  • Demos: Five new demo programs. Several existing demos updated.
  • ODBC: As of v9.20a, direct connection to a data source is now supported, without the need for external configuration via a system ODBC administration utility. Two further demos have been added, illustrating direct connection to Microsoft Excel and Access data files resepectively. A new routine also allows the available ODBC drivers to be interrogated.
  • VS2012: As of v9.20a, the Windows version of WiDE now supports use of Visual Studio 2012 as the provider of tools/libraries for use with Intel Visual Fortran 13.


  • Absoft Pro Fortran v11.5

April 2nd 2012

Winteracter 9.0 is now compatible with the recently released Absoft Pro Fortran 11.5 compilers on Windows, Linux and Mac OS/X. WiDE has been amended at the 9.0j update to ensure support for the 11.5 compilers. As usual, existing Winteracter 9.0 licence holders can update via our Updates page.


  • Intel Fortran 12.1 (update 6/SP1)

September 7th 2011

The current version of Winteracter (9.0f) is compatible with the recently released Intel Fortran 12.1. Somewhat confusingy, this compiler has been released as "update 6" and/or "SP1" of the version 12 compiler, which is in turn known for marketing purposes as "Composer XE 2011". No Winteracter changes are required for this compiler release. In particular, compiler auto-detection in the Windows version of the Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE) functions as previously with the new 12.1 release. Version 9.0 users wishing to use WiDE with Intel Fortran on Windows should ensure that they are using the latest Winteracter update and select the appropriate compiler version via the "IVF Configuration" option in the "Compilers" dialog.


  • Intel Fortran 12.0 and Visual Studio 2010

November 16th 2010

Formal support for Intel Fortran 12.0 has been added to Winteracter at the 9.0c update. Mostly, v9.0 was already compatible with 12.0, but minor changes have been applied to the Winteracter documentation and the Windows version of the Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE), for the benefit of the version 12.0 compilers.

The Windows version of WiDE 9.0c also adds support for Visual Studio 2010 as the provider of tools/libraries for use with IVF 12.0.

Existing Winteracter 9.0 licence holders can update in the usual way, via our Updates page. Users of earlier Winteracter versions can upgrade to the current release at the prices shown on our Price list page.


  • Winteracter 9.0

July 26th 2010

Winteracter v9.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 9.0 release notes.
  • New look
    • Support for latest visual styles on Windows XP/Vista/7. Dialog controls can automatically adapt to native "look" of current platform. No changes required to calling Fortran code to take advantage of new styles. See the updated screen snapshots on the Image Gallery page.
    • Flat toolbar style on all platforms, including X Windows.
    • Three new sets of pre-defined 256-colour toolbar button bitmaps, in 16x16, 24x24 and 32x32 resolutions.
    • New colour scheme on X Windows (see the new screen shots on the X/Winteracter page). Much finer control over X colour scheme. New redistributable colour scheme configuration tool.
    • All the Winteracter visual tools use the new styles, toolbars, etc.
    • To see the new look in action, download the latest version of the Winteracter demonstration program.
  • Transparent images
    • IGrLoadImageData and IGrSaveImageData now support transparent images in PNG (alpha channel), ICO or CUR formats.
    • New WBitmapBlendData blends transparent image data into screen or memory bitmap drawables.
    • Improved visual tool support for transparent image files.
    • Control over degree of transparency in image data, allowing for semi-opaque images.
    • New colour conversion functions which allow for transparency.
    • Convert between transparent and/or non-transparent formats (e.g. ICO to alpha-channel PNG).
  • Visual Tools
    • The resource editor has been updated. In particular, the toolbar and image editors have been substantially overhauled:
      • The toolbar editor now mimics the newly adopted flat toolbar style. More spare images can be loaded and displayed. The depth of the undo buffer has been increased. Separate options to load the pre-defined 16x16, 24x24 or 32x32 button images. Documentation and screen updating have also been improved.
      • The image editor benefits from much improved screen updating and memory management. Undo buffer increased to 12 levels. Improved handling of region selection and cut/copy/paste. New image rotation tools. Improved drawing colour selection. PCX and PNG files can now be edited, when operating in "standalone" mode. Documentation substantially updated.
      • The mimic display in the menu editor has been reworked, providing more accurate replication of the menu's runtime appearance, particularly on Windows Vista/7.
      • On Windows XP/Vista/7, the dialog editor now uses the current system's visual styles to display dialog controls in both edit and test modes.
    • WED, the Winteracter text editor, now provides a search string history, new toolbar buttons for Save All and Change Case options, better integration of the Find-All function with the other search/replace functions and an "insert #" function in the X version for Mac users.
    • The data viewer, WinterView, can now display the contents of ICO/CUR files or transparent ("alpha channel") PNG files. When viewing gridded XYZ data, the raw co-ordinate list can now be viewed in a separate window. The number of recent files on the File menu has been increased.
    • The Windows version of our development environment, WiDE, now includes a manifest creation option, to enable use of the latest visual styles. Compilation is faster on Linux and Mac, particularly when compiling multiple small files.
    • SetupEd and the generic installer now allow for external programs to be run during installation (e.g. a licence manager or installation configuration tool).
    • The appearance of the contents/index control in HTML/Javascript help file sets created by the help editor, HelpEd, has been upgraded. See the Winteracter release notes for an example of such a help file set.
    • PlotConv can now display transparent images in ICO/CUR or PNG (alpha channel) formats.
  • Database interaction
    • Interrogate available data sources.
    • Interrogate table/column names and types.
    • Put string/number routines.
    • Undefined value support.
    • Improved error reporting.
    • Raw SQL command execution.
    • New general purpose data source viewer example program.
  • Common dialogs
    • Colour selector: Program control over custom colour buttons (these are also a new addition in the X version). Title selectable.
    • Directory selector : X version now includes "home directory" and "parent directory" buttons, plus better support for long pathnames.
    • All the common dialogs benefit from the improved look noted above.
  • Grids
    • Built in grid-window toolbar upgraded to 256 colours.
    • Find string and associated options now program selectable.
    • Improved error reporting.
    • Multi-cell/multi-column operations now more efficient (e.g. due to elimination of repeated validation checks).
    • Runtime grid redefinition now allows column width control.
    • Interrogate number of visible rows, original number of columns and Find option state.
  • Editor windows
    • Built in toolbars upgraded to 256 colours.
    • Find and Replace strings and associated options now program selectable.
    • Documentation reorganised and expanded.
    • Interrogate Find/Replace option states.
  • X/Winteracter resource compiler
    • All bitmap, icon and cursor image files are now stored in the compiled resource file on Linux/Mac in 24-bit/Zlib compressed format, rather than 12-bit/RLE-compressed as previously. This has several effects:
      • 24-bit colour images now display in dialogs with full shading.
      • Compiled resources containing multiple images or large images are typically much smaller.
      • Resource compilation time with Intel Fortran is significantly reduced.
  • General
    • g95 support on Linux and Mac updated to "0.92 stable (July 2009)" release.
    • Nine new demo programs, several others updated.
    • 2D scatter plots with point-specific colours.
    • New "find nearest colour" and "count colours" functions.
    • Various new information items, including an extensive set of system colour reporting options (e.g. menu and dialog colours), Print Manager printer name/port and X server vendor/release.
    • Status-bar sub-divisions size can be in pixels.
    • Better error reporting for errors originating from other APIs such as OpenGL, MAPI, Zlib and ODBC.
    • Direct control over background colour when creating and clearing memory bitmaps.
    • The vertex limit on shaded polygons has been eliminated.
    • New "Message Types" section in Programming Reference, detailing each possible message type on a separate page.
    • Improved clipboard management on X Windows.
    • Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) now officially supported.

  • Additional Updates

June 22nd 2010

Various previously inaccessible Winteracter updates for versions 4.0 through 6.0 are now available once again on our Updates page.


  • Absoft Pro Fortran v11.0

December 11th 2009

Winteracter 8.0 has been successfully tested with the recently released Absoft Pro Fortran 11.0 compilers on Windows, Linux and Mac OS/X. The existing Absoft Pro Fortran 10.x support in Winteracter 8.0 on Linux and Mac is also suitable for use with the 11.0 compiler. Winteracter documentation and WiDE have been suitably amended at the 8.0g update to take account of this additional compatibility. As usual, existing Winteracter 8.0 licence holders can update via our Updates page.


  • Windows 7

November 5th 2009

The current version of Winteracter (v8.0) has been tested on Windows 7. No issues have been identified, so there appears to be no need for an update to add support for this platform. Both the 32-bit and 64-bit Windows versions of Winteracter 8.0 have been successfully tested on Windows 7. Compatibility testing has including testing of Winteracter based applications built on earlier Windows platforms (e.g. XP). These also appear to execute as expected on Windows 7.

No Windows 7 specific Winteracter update will therefore be issued, though the 8.0g update includes minor cosmetic amendments to the documentation, reflecting the additional compatibility with this platform. In general, existing v8.0 users should simply read any existing Winteracter documentation which refers to Windows Vista as meaning "Windows Vista and Windows 7".

Any users planning to develop Fortran based applications on or for Windows 7 should note that it is advisable to update to a recent version of their preferred compiler. This is not a Winteracter requirement as such, simply a compiler compatibility issue. The compiler versions used in our tests were:

  • IVF 11.1.051
  • Absoft Pro Fortran 10.2
  • Lahey Fortran 7.10.02
  • FTN95 5.40

Other compiler versions may also be compatible.


  • Intel Fortran 11.1

June 26th 2009

Support for Intel Fortran 11.1 has been added to Winteracter at the 8.0e update. In particular, the Windows versions of the Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE) have been upgraded to support Intel Visual Fortran 11.1.

Existing Winteracter 8.0 licence holders can update in the usual way, via our Updates page.


  • Intel Fortran 11.0 and Visual Studio 2008

January 8th 2009

Support for Intel Fortran 11.0 has been added to Winteracter at the 8.0c update. In particular, the Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE) has been upgraded to support Intel Fortran 11.0 on all of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. On Windows a new IVF configuration mechanism has been added to WiDE, allowing selection between multiple installed compiler and Visual Studio versions. The Windows version of WiDE 8.0c also adds support for Visual Studio 2008 as the provider of tools/libraries for use with IVF 10/11. Additionally, WiDE 8.0c now allows VS2003 to be used as a debugger, as an alternative to idb, when using IVF 10/11.

Existing Winteracter 8.0 licence holders can update in the usual way, via our Updates page.


  • Absoft Pro Fortran v10.2

November 11th 2008

Winteracter 8.0 has been successfully tested with the recently released Absoft Pro Fortran 10.2 compilers on Windows, Linux and Mac OS/X. The existing Absoft Pro Fortran 10.0/10.1 support in Winteracter 8.0 on Linux and Mac is also suitable for use with the 10.2 compiler.


  • Winteracter 8.0

July 16th 2008

Winteracter v8.0 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 8.0 release notes.
  • Documentation: The Programming Guide has been integrated into the main documentation set. The entire documentation set is now supplied in a single format, under a common contents/index. The documentation set now provides numerous hypertext links to/from the Programming Guide for the first time. Integration of the Programming Guide ensures that all of the supplied documentation can now be searched via a single interface.
  • Bitmaps: Half-toning is now supported in bitmap stretching operations on most platforms, giving much better quality bitmap rescaling. WBitmapPut, WBitmapResize, WBitmapLoad and IGrLoadImage all beneft from this change. WBitmapPut now also supports bitmap stretching on X Windows. New bitmap file format conversion routine added.
  • Latest o.s. versions: Improved support for recent operating system releases such as Vista, Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and Fedora 9.
  • X fonts: X Windows font support has been substantially reworked to reflect the fonts which most current Linux and Mac OS X installations actually provide. Changes also take account of font rescaling quality, which can vary depending on platform. Font selection in dialogs/menus, editor and graphics text output all benefit from these changes. Graphics applications should particularly benefit, since X fonts will be used much more often in preference to substituted "software" fonts.
  • Information functions: Rationalisation of the the various information functions in the IF group has been completed, including various improvements to the graphics reporting functions.
  • Presentation graphics: Substantially improved grid interpolation algorithm. More hatching options. Better missing data handling in filled contour plots. User scaling limit eliminated.
  • Help files: WHelpFile (Win32) no longer relies on external DLL to display CHM files in IVF, LF95 5.7/7.x and Absoft 10 versions.
  • Visual tools: Many new menu accelerator keys added to most of the visual tools.
  • WiDE: Simplified OpenGL linking. Option to open files in system associated app on Mac OS X. Improvements to Project and Switches dialogs.
  • Resource editor: Toolbar editor allows selection from more images. Dialog editor alignment grid improved on Vista. Better resource identifier file/module naming conventions. Improved dialog put/get code generation dialog.
  • WED: Better tab key handling. More edit buffers. HTML symbol insertion. Improved printing option management. Command line "goto string" option. Improved dialog put/get code generation dialog in WiDE version.
  • HelpEd: Project source format (RTF-to-HTML) conversion option. HTML symbol option insertion options, as for WED. Better topic identifier file/module naming conventions. Additional help options in topic editors.
  • SetupEd and generic installer: Various improvements including better Vista support, optional licence agreement dialog, support for PNG or PCX bimaps, administrator privilege check, all-user/current-user shortcuts choice and more.
  • WinterView: The data viewer provides better management, recognition and display of missing values. Displaying large XYZ data sets is much faster thanks to the improved grid interpolation option. Better local decimal point character support on Windows.
  • Compilers: Updated compiler support. Intel versions now built with v10.1 on all plaforms. g95 support on Linux and Mac updated to latest 2008 "0.91 stable" release. (Note: MS PowerStation is no longer supported as of this release.)
  • Installation: Various improvements to installation procedure on all of Windows, Linux and Mac. Better Vista support. Improved Windows shortcut creaion. New "Apps" directory generated on Mac allowing easy invocation of tools and documentation via Finder. Prompt for preferred documentation/web browser on Linux.
  • Pixel co-ordinates: Mouse and keyboard messages now also include raw pixel co-ordinate values. Graphics units to/from pixel conversion routines now include top-left origin option, for consistency with other library routines which use pixel co-ords.


  • Intel Fortran 10

June 29th 2007

As of v7.10g, Winteracter now officially supports Intel Fortran 10.0.


  • Windows Vista

March 20th 2007

As of v7.10f, Winteracter has been tested on the newly released Microsoft Windows Vista. Virtually all Winteracter features appear to work as expected. In general behaviour is the same as on Windows 2000/XP. Compilers successfully tested with Winteracter on Vista include CVF 6.6, IVF 9.1, LF95 5.7 and Absoft Pro Fortran 10. Winteracter documentation has been updated to include references to Vista, where appropriate. Users who currently own a Winteracter 7.10 licence can update to 7.10f in the usual way, via our Updates page.


  • Absoft Pro Fortran v10/Win32

December 16th 2006

As of v7.10d, Winteracter supports the recently released Absoft Pro Fortran v10 compiler on Win32 platforms. Winteracter therefore supports Absoft's v10 compiler on all of Win32, Windows x64, Linux/x86 and Linux/x86_64.

We are continuing to also support Absoft Pro Fortran 9 on Win32, in version 7.10. Customers who hold or purchase a Winteracter 7.10 licence for use with Absoft Pro Fortran on Win32 will therefore have access to versions which support both the v9 and v10 compilers. Support for v10 is included in the downloadable v7.10 update, which is available on the Updates page.


  • Mac OS X/x86

November 27th 2006

X/Winteracter is now available for Intel-based Apple Mac systems. As of 7.10c, the supported compilers are Intel Fortran 9.1 and g95. Support for Absoft Pro Fortran v10 has also been added, as of v7.10f.

The Intel-based Mac version of X/Winteracter offers the same functionality as the earlier PowerPC equivalent, operating via the X server which is supplied as part of Mac OS X.

Please note: Support for the PowerPC-based Mac platform has now been frozen at v7.10a. All future X/Winteracter updates and new releases for Mac OS X will be for Intel-based Mac systems.


  • Winteracter 7.10

May 22nd 2006

Winteracter v7.10 is now available. Upgrades are available from any previous release. See Price List.

View the full version 7.10 release notes.
  • 3D modelling
    • 3D models can be split into parts. Allows partial model manipulation without full model recreation:
      • Apply transformation matrix to a part to move or rescale it.
      • Change material of a given part (e.g. to highlight it).
      • Set part visibility, allowing objects to be hidden.
      • Names can be assigned to parts, to simplify end-user part identification.
    • 3D DXF support upgraded:
      • Number of vertices and facets can be interrogated.
      • Faster loading when the "shared vertices" option is specified.
      • Parts recognised in DXF files.
    • Substantially expanded model interrogation. Virtually all model information can now be retrieved, including vertex co-ordinates.
    • Material of each facet can be set individually.
    • 3Dview model viewer tool upgraded to support parts in both W3D and DXF files. A separate "Parts view" uses a split window to display a parts list and a model view highlighting the selected part.
  • Database Interrogation
    • Interrogate data in third-party data sources, via ODBC.
    • ODBC database access supported on all of Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
    • Retrieve data as strings, integer, real or double precision values.
    • Access single fields or arrays of values (latter is more efficient).
    • Interrogate number of database records.
  • Graphics primitives
    • Co-ordinate system rotation:
      • Single subroutine call allows entire co-ordinate system to be rotated by 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees.
      • Rotation affects all graphics output, including presentation graphics.
    • Graphics text blocks:
      • Write multi-line text within a formatting rectangle.
      • Text can be justified or l/c/r aligned.
      • Option to auto adjust font size to ensure text fits.
      • Control over line spacing.
      • Line breaks can be forced.
      • Text block length interrogation function.
    • Arrow head width control.
    • Limits on polyline/polygon size eliminated.
    • Palette interrogation: Get nearest 8-bit palette index, given a 24-bit RGB value.
  • Editor windows
    • Editor window printing can be invoked under program control, in addition to user invocation.
    • Program control over both program-invoked and user-invoked editor printing options.
    • Set editor selection.
  • Grids
    • Control over print options for user-invoked grid-window printing.
    • Optionally save grid column/row labels in CSV files.
  • Bitmaps
    • Faster bitmap rotation on Windows NT/2000/XP (approx 10 times quicker).
    • Faster and better quality image resizing on Windows.
    • More memory bitmaps allowed (max=50).
    • X Windows versions now support same range of BMP/PCX sub-formats as Windows versions. Adds support for compressed BMP, 16-bit BMP and mono/16-colour PCX.
  • Resource editor
    • Improved field resizing in dialog editor.
    • Export current button in toolbar editor.
    • Bigger images in image editor (max=100x100).
  • WED
    • HTML tag insertion options:
      • Insert : Picture, hypertext link, table, list, anchor point, horizontal line or line break.
      • Text style formatting : Bold, italic, font size, super/sub-script, monospaced.
      • Paragraph formatting : Normal/heading/pre-formatted and paragraph alignment.
    • Direct access to full Subroutine Reference via summary Subroutine Info dialog.
    • Subroutine Info dialog now shows each argument's intent.
    • Hex colour code insertion.
  • WiDE
    • Line ending conversion tool eases source file exchange between Windows and Linux/Mac OS X.
    • Improved front-end to Fortran source reformatter.
    • Simplified code output from Application Wizard.
  • Help editor
    • HTML tag insertion options when editing help files in HTML source form:
      • Insert : Table, list, anchor point, horizontal line or line break.
      • Text style formatting : Bold, italic, font size, super/sub-script, monospaced.
      • Paragraph formatting : Normal/heading/pre-formatted and paragraph alignment.
    • Substantially expanded topic editor documentation.
    • Advanced Search option when generating HTML Help (CHM) files.
    • Access to Microsoft's HTML Tag Reference (where installed).
  • Troubleshooter editor
    • Same HTML tag insertion options as WED (see above).
    • Several additional help options, including access to Microsoft's HTML Tag Reference (where installed).
  • Documentation
    • Advanced search options under Windows:
      • Boolean operators.
      • Previous search string history.
      • Restrict search to previous results and/or topic titles.
      • Sort results by title, location or rank.
      • Accessible via the Search tab in the HTML Help viewer window.
    • New wsearch tool on Linux and Mac OS X provides similar documentation search capabilities:
      • Previous search string history.
      • Restrict search to previous results and/or topic titles.
      • Sort results by title or location.
      • Search can be invoked from the command prompt or the Help menu in WiDE.
    • Improved index.
    • Section name on every page.
  • Compilers
  • Support for the forthcoming version of Lahey/Fujitsu Fortran running on Linux/x86_64 (AMD64/EM64T) platforms.
  • Absoft Pro Fortran support on Linux upgraded to v10. (Note: v10 is now the required version.)
  • New Win64 version for Absoft Pro Fortran v10 on AMD64/EM64T Windows.
  • General
  • Display EMF metafiles from the program resource in a dialog field under Windows.
  • Sort routine extended to optionally report new array order.
  • WHelpfile accepts "ms-its:" filename syntax allowing access to a specific HTML file inside a HTML HELP (CHM) file.


  • Winteracter 7.0

September 13th 2005 (updated October 12th 2005)

New features benefit both Windows and Linux implementations, unless stated otherwise:

View the full version 7.0 release notes.
  • 64-bit Windows and Linux
    • New versions available for AMD64/EM64T platforms:
      • Intel Fortran 9 on X64 versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
      • Intel Fortran 9 on Linux/x86_64
      • Absoft Pro Fortran 9 on Linux/x86_64
    • Fully source compatible with 32-bit version
    • Same range of visual tools as 32-bit version
  • Mac OS X
    • X/Winteracter ported to Apple Mac
    • Runs via Apples's X11 X server
    • Virtually the same functionality as the Linux version
    • Same calling interface and visual tools as the Linux version
    • Target compiler : Absoft Pro Fortran 9.2
  • Absoft Pro Fortran 9
    • Absoft Pro Fortran support updated from v7/8 to v9 (v7/8 are no longer supported)
    • Absoft compilers supported across all of Windows, Linux (x86 and x86_64) and Mac OS X
    • Win32 Absoft licence added to the choice of 30-day Evaluation versions.
  • Intel Fortran 9
    • Intel Fortran versions are now built with and formally support the version 9 compiler
    • Versions available for both IA32 and EM64T on Windows and Linux
  • g95 (New at v7.0a)
    • g95 support has been added to all Linux and Mac OS X versions of X/Winteracter at v7.0a. This is included as an addition to support for the target commercial compiler. i.e. X/Winteracter licences are still supplied for use with a primary compiler from one of Lahey, Intel or Absoft, but g95 support is now included at no additional cost. Users of the original 7.0 release can obtain g95 support by updating to v7.0a, or later, via the Updates page. (To check your installed version number, select Help|Licence Information in WiDE.)
  • 3D Modelling
    • OpenGL-based renderer added to Winteracter 3D modelling routines:
      • New WglShow provides an OpenGL based equivalent of existing W3dShow renderer.
      • Offers a "best of both worlds" 3D modelling solution, combining our easy to learn 3D routines with OpenGL performance.
      • Existing Winteracter 3D modelling programs easily upgraded to use the OpenGL renderer.
      • Much larger models become feasible, as do models with intersecting facets.
    • W3dLoad and W3dSave extended to read and write 3D models in DXF format. Allows 3D models to be exported to or imported from third party applications.
    • W3dFacet now allows for double-sided facets
    • Multiple light sources and light intensity/colour control
    • Improved material reporting
Download our newly updated OpenGL demo
which now also incorporates examples of
Winteracter's own 3D modelling interface.
  • 3D Model Viewer
    • New 3Dview OpenGL-based 3D model viewing tool
    • View 3D models created by Winteracter's own W3dSave routine or third party 3D DXF files.
    • Highly responsive viewing control, with rotate, zoom and pan via mouse, keyboard or menu
    • Animated rotation option
    • Save models in Winteracter or DXF format
    • Export image saves current view in BMP, PNG or PCX format
    • Print via Print Manager (Windows) or PostScript (Linux or Mac OS X)
    • Orthographic or perspective projection
    • Choice of rendering methods (wireframe, unlit or shaded)
    • Control over materials and lighting
    • Redistributable with Winteracter based applications
  • HelpEd Help Editor
    • Major upgrade of our help file creation tool
    • Now available on Linux and Mac OS X
    • Support for HTML/Javascript and HTML Help (CHM) upgraded to give equal emphasis to all three output formats
    • Help file source can now be maintained in HTML as an alternative to RTF (HTML source always used on Linux and Mac OS X)
    • Contents now managed via a treeview
    • Topic editor adds various features from WED, e.g. insert file/date/time, find all, goto line, HTML syntax highlighting, etc.
    • Improved documentation
    • WinHelp-to-HTML converter now fully incorporated (replaces old separate Help2HTM tool)
  • TrEdit Troubleshooter Creator
    • New visual tool creates Q&A style "troubleshooters"
    • Available on all supported platforms
    • Easy to use split-window treeview+editor user interface
    • Topic editor includes various WED features such as insert file/date/time, find all, HTML syntax highlighting, etc.
    • Creates HTML/Javascript or Windows HTML Help (CHM) output files. HTML files can be deployed to any platform. CHM files can be deployed as a single file.
  • WiDE development environment
    • Find-in-Files option to search+edit project and/or non-project text files
    • Improved project file portability
    • Intel Visual Fortran configuration simplified
    • Absoft Pro Fortran support updated to v9
  • WinterView Data Viewer
    • Bit image files can be viewed
    • XYZ co-ordinate lists can be loaded and automatically gridded
    • Save surface as a model for viewing in new OpenGL based 3D viewer
    • Missing data support
    • Current cell indicator
    • Smooth shading option
    • Mouse control improvements
  • Grids
    • Top-left corner can be labelled
    • Save Selection menu option in grid windows
    • Colour control in read-only cells
    • Runtime column width control via column headers (Windows only)
    • Faster CSV file save for numeric grids
  • Resource Editor
    • Undo options added to menu and toolbar editors.
    • Grid column rearrangement option in dialog editor
    • Better image filename handling improves resource file portability
  • General
    • Window background colour can be set on window-open
    • Right justified status bar divisions
    • 24-bit colour support in DXF files
    • Smooth shading option in 3D surface and 2D contour plots
    • Missing data indicator support in line-based 2D contour plots
    • Movie playback to dialog fields (Windows only)
    • Byte order swapping option in binary file I/O routine
    • More fonts in WED, font selectable on the fly
    • Desktop shortcut creation in generic installer (Windows only)
    • Share a common menu between editor and non-editor sub-windows in a split window

  • Winteracter 6.10

January 17th 2005

New features benefit both Windows and Linux implementations, unless stated otherwise:

View the full version 6.10 release notes.
  • Grids
    • Major reworking of grid control under Windows with several benefits:
      • Lower resource usage
      • Faster scrolling
      • Much larger grids are feasible
      • Cells updated in real time when scrolled via the scrollbar
      • Less cluttered spinner and menu fields.
    • Other performance improvements
      • Faster creation/destruction of grids under Linux, if all column types are the same
      • Faster grid file load and save under both Windows and Linux.
    • Get/set grid selection under program control
    • Reporting of grid selection changes
    • Grid label interrogation
    • Improved multi-cell selection mechanisms under Windows
  • Clipboard
    • Clipboard contents interrogation
    • Set of subroutines to put/get strings, bitmaps and metafiles to/from clipboard
    • Replay EMF (Win32) or CGM (Win32/Linux) metafiles directly from clipboard
    • Display memory bitmaps directly from clipboard
  • WinterView : Data Viewer
    • New addition to the Winteracter visual tool set.
    • Display two dimensional numeric data simultaneously in a grid and a 2D or 3D plot.
    • Reads data from CSV files saved from Winteracter based programs or third party applications.
    • Supported plot types : 3D surface, 2D line or fill based contour plot, 2D vector plot
    • Zoom and pan options allow examination of sub-areas of the data.
    • Print options for both grid data and plot
    • Export plot in any of WMF/EMF, EPS, CGM, SVG, HP-GL, HP-GL/2, DXF, BMP, PCX or PNG.
    • WinterView is redistributable with Winteracter-based applications.
  • Presentation Graphics
    • Vector plots
    • Shaded fill primitives
    • Faster 2D filled contour plots
    • Graduated colour option on line-based contour plots
    • Continuous colour bar style key
    • Number of built-in markers increased from 20 to 40
  • WiDE
    • Optional combined window layout can be used to merge project dialog, console and editor windows into a single split window. (Multi-window layout still supported, if preferred).
    • Source code reformatter provides various code beautification options.
    • Improved toolbars
    • Improved library management
  • Resource Editor
    • Support for horizontal and vertical separator lines in dialogs.
    • Dialog fields can be centred as a group, maintaining their relative positions.
    • Image editor can load monochrome icons and cursors.
    • Linux image editor uses tool-specific mouse cursors, as under Windows.
    • Improved treeview properties dialog
  • Visual Tools
    • More Help buttons in visual tools' dialogs and toolbars.
    • More recent files on the File menu in various tools.
  • Cursors
    • User-defined mouse cursors now supported on Linux, in addition to Windows.
    • Per-drawable mouse cursor control
  • General
    • A selection of new pre-defined icons, button-bitmaps and cursors
    • Get/put command line history in editor windows
    • Change editor window font on the fly
    • Generic installer now includes a dialog-only option (i.e. without full screen backdrop)
    • Line number and header/footer printing options in WED
    • Set/goto bookmark option in editor windows and WED
    • Partial registry emulation under Linux, allowing portable registry key usage across Win32 and Linux
    • Save two dimensional integer, real, double precision or character arrays to CSV files via a single subroutine call. Simplifies data export to spreadsheets (e.g. Excel) or the new Winteracter data viewer.
    • Parent dialog can be specified when showing a dialog.
    • Program icon can be shown in a dialog field.


  • Winteracter 6.0

June 7th 2004

New features benefit both Windows and Linux implementations, unless stated otherwise:

View the full version 6.0 release notes.
  • Split Windows
    • Split windows into multiple panels.
    • Sub-windows can be normal graphics output windows, dialogs, text editors, bitmap viewers or grid editors.
    • Split windows horizontally or vertically. Each sub-window becomes a child window which can itself be split.
    • Each sub-window can be resizable or fixed size.
    • Only minor changes are required to existing programs to utilise this feature.
    • To see split windows in action, download the Winteracter demo from the Demo/Trial Software page and select either of the Presentation Graphics or Animation options.
  • Resizable Dialogs
    • Option to make dialogs user resizable. Simply nominate one resizable field within a dialog. Winteracter does the rest.
    • Especially useful with grid controls, treeviews, list boxes and multi-line string fields.
    • Several dialogs in Winteracter's own visual tools are now resizable.
  • WiDE Development Environment
    • Make : Built-in 'make' facility reduces compile time.
    • Help : Customisable help menu. Add your own help files.
    • External applications : Define filetype associations for integration with external apps.
    • Menu : Improved menu structure provides better organisation and clearer option descriptions.
    • Hex dump : File browser option to view files in hex.
    • Debug : Access to Microsoft debugger when using DVF/CVF 5.0/6.x or PowerStation 4.0.
  • Documentation
    • Merged help : Documentation collected together under a single contents/index control. Single access point for virtually all disk-based documentation.
    • Programming Reference : Subroutine Reference, "winter" help file and parts of old User Guide combined into a single definitive disk-based reference.
    • Links : Navigation of disk-based documentation further improved by extensive additional hypertext links within the Programming Reference, plus many links between help files.
    • Programming Guide : New manual with greater "how to" emphasis replaces old User Guide.
    • Linux : Improved contents control performance and better font handling in HTML help pages on Linux.
  • Presentation Graphics
    • Error bars : Add error bars at any position and direction to 2D scatter and polyline plots.
    • Scatter plots : Graduated colour 3D scatter plots. Varying number of points per data set allowed on 2D and 3D scatter plots.
    • Contour plots : Graduated colour 2D fill-based contour plots.
    • Scale : Interrogate automatically generated scale values.
    • Surfaces : Control over grid line density on 3D surfaces.
    • Tables : Double precision and string column types added.
    • Limits : More data sets allowed. Limit on stacked plot size eliminated.
  • Mouse Wheel
    • Mouse wheel scrolled message reporting.
    • Mouse wheel support on Linux in editors, grids, bitmap viewer windows and various dialog controls.
  • Memory Bitmaps
    • Save/load to/from disk in a single subroutine call.
    • Bitmap manipulation routines : Mirror, rotate, resize.
  • Save as HTML
    • New routines save two-dimensional arrays as HTML tables.
    • Support for character, real, double precision or integer arrays.
    • Save HTML fragment or complete page.
    • Control over various layout options.
  • Help2HTM
    • Font handling reworked. Now uses cascading style sheets instead of <font> tags. Gives more accurate font reproduction and improves cross-browser compatibility.
    • Substantially improved Javascript contents/index control. Faster operation and better current-page tracking
    • In-page links.
    • Inter-help file links.
    • Better support for character codes above 160.
  • Other Visual Tools
    • ResEdit : "Double click selects default button" option for menu and treeview fields. "New toolbar button" option in image editor. Option to reduce frequency of symbol header save, for sake of 'make' facilities. Longer tab control captions allowed.
    • WED : Bracket matching. Mouse wheel scrolling on Linux. Optional second toolbar. More recent files on File menu.
    • PlotConv : Optional page range in multi-page printing. Resizable main dialog.
  • General
    • Editor windows : More fixed pitch fonts. Set cursor position and find string routines.
    • Line types : Eighth line style added.
    • IOsDeleteTree : Delete a directory tree.
    • Demos : Six more example programs.
    • Large disks/files : InfoOpSystem and IOsFileInfo support disk/files bigger than 2Gb.
    • Grids : Current selection range can be interrogated.

Note: Support for Intel Fortran v7.x (Win32/Linux) and LF95 v6.1 (Linux) has been dropped at this release in favour of Intel Fortran v8 and LF95 v6.2. Support for NAGWare f95 (Linux) has also been dropped.


  • Intel Fortran v8

December 10th 2003

Winteracter is available with immediate effect for use with the newly released Intel Fortran version 8, on both Windows and Linux. Intel Fortran v8 is the "combined technology" release which merges the Compaq Visual Fortran front-end and the Intel Fortran code generator. The Winteracter 5.10e update adds libraries and modules which are compatible with Intel Fortran v8.

Winteracter 5.10 users who have a licence for the Digital/Compaq/Intel Fortran version can download the latest update to obtain IF8 support. Users of earlier Winteracter releases can upgrade to v5.10 to obtain the same functionality (see the upgrade prices on the Price List page.)

More information on Intel Fortran is available on the Intel web site.


  • Winteracter 5.10

September 1st 2003

New features at Winteracter v5.10 include:

View the full version 5.10 release notes.
  • Development Environment
    • WiDE, the Winteracter development environment, has been substantially upgraded. It now offers an even more credible alternative to compiler/platform-specific IDEs.
    • Separate Release and Debug configurations, selectable with a single keystroke or mouse-click.
    • Additional program execution options when Debug configuration selected. Enable reporting of Winteracter library error messages. Run via your compiler's debugger (where this is provided in standalone form).
    • C compiler support. Compile and link mixed Fortran/C applications, if required.
    • Integrated WPP Fortran preprocessor can be invoked automatically during compilation or as a one-off.
    • Context sensitive help. A new Help button appears in nearly every WiDE dialog.
    • Help files updated, expanded and reorganised. Manuals now accessible from Help menu.
    • Improved Automake interface.
    • Improved invocation of Winteracter's visual tools. Keyboard accelerators and auto-loading of compatible project files.
    • Improved console message reporting.
    • Enhancements to integrated text editor (WED) and resource editor.
  • WED
    • Syntax highlighting extended: C, HTML, RC, H and BAT files are now supported. Fortran highlighting is WPP sensitive. Logical operators and statement numbers highlighted separately in Fortran.
    • Pop-up Winteracter subroutine descriptions. Just place the cursor on a name and hit Ctrl+F1.
    • Insert dialog value put/get source code in WiDE version of WED.
    • Other new features: Context menu key recognised (Win32), optional backup files, modification indicator, save+Browse HTML in one step.
  • Resource Editor
    • Code generation: Automatically generate code to process messages or to put/get dialog values, based on identifiers defined in resource file.
    • Toolbar editor: Import PNG or PCX bitmaps or 16/256 colour icons, as toolbar buttons.
    • Icon editor: New text and ellipse tools. Maximum image size increased. Improved rectangle tool.
    • Context sensitive help: Help button in nearly all ResEdit dialogs.
  • Preprocessor (WPP)
    • New WPP Fortran preprocessor added. Useful for code which requires minor variations to suit different target compilers/platforms.
    • Supplied both in command line form and built into WiDE.
    • Easy to understand format relies on Fortran comments, ensuring both source and output files remain valid standard-conforming Fortran code.
  • email
    • Send email direct from your Winteracter application.
    • Support for multiple recipients/attachments.
    • Works on both Win32 and Linux.
  • Presentation Graphics
    • Missing data: Most plot types can now cope with unavailable data values via a program definable missing data indicator.
    • Keys: Control over key area size/position. Optionally clear area or assign a title.
    • Polylines: Varying length arrays in polyline plots.
    • Markers: Numeric markers >9 supported.
  • Debugging/diagnostics
    • Library error message strings now include name of originating routine and, where appropriate, operating system or zlib message strings.
    • Operating system and zlib error message strings can be interrogated by number.
    • IDebugLogical added.
    • New WiDE debugging options.
  • Help Files
    • HelpEd now allows bitmaps and metafiles to be included in help files.
    • HelpHTM now recognises included pictures, as added via HelpEd. (Embedded pictures were already recognised).
    • HelpHTM accepts links to external URLs and allows the help window background colour to be set.
    • HTML and PDF browser names can be set under program control on Linux.
  • Dialogs/Grids
    • Multiple copies of same dialog can be loaded simultaneously.
    • Control provided over value returned by undefined numeric fields/cells.
    • Save grids as HTML.
    • Grid string search can optionally include numeric columns.
    • Grid windows: Optional insert/delete row menu options and backup file creation.
  • Message handling
    • Timers can now auto-repeat.
    • FieldChanged messages can be forced to occur on every change in a string/numeric field.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Sound: .WAV file playback on Linux, in addition to Windows
    • Editor windows: Context menu key support (Win32), backup files, modification indicator, program invoked save, better error messages.
    • Bitmaps: Get memory bitmaps from program resource. Click+drag option in editor windows.
    • Operating system: Interrogate filetype/program association (Win32). Set environment variables.
    • Date/time utility routines: Calculate day of week, difference between two dates and days in month. Identify leap year. Numeric date/time to string in various formats.
    • Windows version now includes an uninstaller.
    • PlotConv offers improved multi-image file navigation.
  • Intel Fortran 7.x and 8.x
    • The Visual Fortran (DVF/CVF) and Intel Fortran 7.x (Windows) versions have been combined into a single licence. CVF or IF7 customers who upgrade to 5.10 will receive libraries/modules for use with both compilers.
    • This release has been tested with and is ready to support Intel Fortran 8.x (due late 2003) on both Win32 and Linux. This is the long awaited release which combines the CVF and IF7 compilers. The v5.10 documentation and the new version of WiDE already include support for IF8. Customers who buy a CVF/IF7 (Win32) or IF7 (Linux) Winteracter 5.10 licence will be able to download IF8-compatible libraries+module, as soon as the compiler is officially released. (Note: While Intel Fortran 8.0 is based on the same compiler technology on both Win32 and Linux, the Win32 product will also be known as "Intel Visual Fortran" for marketing purposes. Since Winteracter supports the Intel compiler on both platforms, we are referring to it generically as "IF8".)


  • 30-day Trial Version (Win32)

May 13th 2003

For customers who are considering purchasing Winteracter for the first time, a 30-day Win32 trial version is now available. This is available to users of the Lahey LF95, Compaq Visual Fortran or Intel Fortran compilers. The trial version includes the core Winteracter components, namely the main subroutine library and the Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE). PDF versions of the Winteracter manuals are also included. To request a trial, go to the Demo/Trial Software page.


  • Winteracter 5.0

February 11th 2003

New features at Winteracter v5.0 include:

View the full version 5.0 release notes.
  • Grid Printing
    • Grid windows now include a built-in Print option. Grids are printed via Print Manager (Win32) or PostScript (Linux).
    • Grid printing also available under program control, allowing printing of grids in dialog.
    • All or part of a grid can be printed. Grids can be printed over multiple pages and/or scaled. Control over use of colour and appearance of grid lines.
  • Text Editor Windows
    • Text editor windows displayed by WEditFile now use the Windows RichEdit v2/v3 control, where available. This offers several benefits including multi-level undo, backward searching and enhanced mouse-wheel support.
    • Selective program control over both paragraph and text style in RTF editor windows under Windows. Control over font, colour, emphasis, bullets, etc.
  • Dialogs
    • The Windows version now allows fonts to be specified on a per-field basis in dialogs. Any Windows font can be used.
    • The Windows version of the directory selector common dialog now uses a treeview, allowing easier directory searching.
  • Help Files
    • The Windows version of Help2HTM now offers a choice of Windows HTML Help (CHM) output, in addition to HTML/Javascript output. CHM format offers simultaneously visible contents/index and topic information.
    • HTML/Javascript help file sets generated by Help2HTM now provide an equivalent user interface to HTML Help (CHM), with contents/index and topic information in separate frames.
    • HelpEd now includes a built-in version of Help2HTM. Help files can therefore be generated in any of HLP, CHM or HTML formats from a single tool, using common sources.
    • Winteracter's own help files under Windows and Linux are now both generated via Help2HTM (CHM under Windows, HTML under Linux). Disk-based documentation on both platforms therefore enjoys an improved user interface.
    • New features and bug fixes are now documented in a single release notes help file (replacing the previous whatsnew and bugfixes documents).
    • WHelpFile's CHM support has been upgraded to allow topic/keyword access and to allow the HTML Help viewer to be closed.
    • WHelpFile can now display Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files.
    • Invocation of local (non-URL) HTML files from within WHelpFile has been improved to ensure compatibility with Mozilla. This particularly benefits the Linux versions of the visual tools, which are now able to display their help files via Mozilla.
  • 3D Modelling
    • A major new set of 3D modelling routines offer an alternative to OpenGL, for certain users/applications. The new 3D routines offer a more concise and Fortran oriented calling interface. Built on Winteracter's own graphics primitives/drivers, they therefore provide more extensive hardcopy/export facilities and eliminate reliance on additional external libraries. (For more details of the respective merits of OpenGL and Winteracter's own 3D routines, please refer to the v5.0 release notes.)
    • Create 3D model descriptions from vertex/facet data. Utility routines to produce rotated or extruded objects from 2D polyline/polygon descriptions.
    • Control over associated materials (colour/etc.)
    • Choice of rendition methods (wireframe, unshaded or lit with three shading methods).
    • Control over viewing position, direction of view and 'up' vector. Location of a single light source can also be specified.
    • Modelview matrix manipulation routines (put/get, rotate, scale, translate).
    • Perspective or orthographic view.
    • Save/load model descriptions to/from compiler/platform independent binary data files. Optionally, build models incrementally from multiple data files.
    • Text routines to add 3D strings/numbers using outline fonts on both Win32 and Linux.
  • Shaded Fills and 24-bit Colour
    • A new shaded polygon fill primitive has been added. A 24-bit RGB value is associated with each polygon vertex. Uses a GDI primitive where available or a generic substitute otherwise.
    • 24-bit colour support under X Windows has been improved. Particularly useful when using features like the new shaded polygon fill or the 3D modelling routines. Also used by PlotConv to show more colours in 16/24/32-bit BMP/PCX/PNG files.
  • WED (Winteracter Text Editor)
    • Syntax highlighting in Fortran source files supported in both screen (Win32) and hardcopy (Win32/Linux) output. The style of Fortran comments, strings, types, keywords and intrinsics are individually selectable. Generic and specific intrinsics are separately identified. Winteracter routine names are also highlighted. Hardcopy highlighting supported on both colour and mono printers.
    • Fortran printer listings now also include subroutine-per-page and subroutine-index options, plus page numbering.
    • A Print Selection option has been added.
    • A Colour Number option has been added to the Insert menu.
  • WiDE (Winteracter Development Environment)
    • Improved compilation error reporting and location. In addition to raw console output, compilation errors now appear in a summary dialog. Selecting an error jumps to that error in the editor.
    • Syntax highlighting, as described above. Notably, highlighted/indexed Fortran printer listings are available to both WED and non-WED editor users.
  • PostScript Image Printing
    • Bit image files loaded via IGrLoadImage are now reproduced in PostScript output via IGrHardCopy.
    • IGrPrintImage bit-image dump now supports PostScript output (now used by default under Linux).
    • The PlotConv graphic file viewer/converter can now print BMP/PCX/PNG files to PostScript or convert them to EPS.
  • Graphical Input
    • Allow the user to mark a point, line, rectangle or ellipse with the mouse. Optionally maintain rectangle/ellipse aspect ratio.
    • Allow the user to drag a fixed shape (line, polyline, curve, polygon or ellipse) to a new position.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Motif 2.2 is now supported on Linux, in addition to v2.1.
    • The Resource Editor now provides dynamic control over the maximum number of dialogs/menus/fields etc. in a resource. This will prove useful to developers of unusually large resource files.
    • Several minor enhancements have been applied to log scaling on presentation graphics plots.
    • The current user name can be retrieved.
    • Default graphics hardcopy filenames are now sensitive to output file type.
    • Support for Intel Fortran.


  • Winteracter 4.10

May 27th 2002 (updated June 15th 2002)

View the full version 4.10 release notes.

New features at Winteracter v4.10 include:

  • Visual Tools
    • The Winteracter Development Environment (WiDE) now incorporates a fully intergrated version of the resource editor. All of the dialogs, menus, toolbars, etc. which your application uses are now automatically listed in a treeview on a "Resources" tab in the WiDE project dialog. Selecting any user interface component from this tab opens a window to display and edit that item in the resource editor. This provides more seamless integration than the previous method of resource editor invocation, which relied on running the standalone version as an external process. (Note : The standalone version is, of course, still provided for the benefit of those who prefer to develop in other environments. The functionality of both editors is essentially identical.)
    • The built-in WiDE text editor (now known as WED) has been substantially upgraded and is now also supplied in stand-alone form. WED provides a number of Fortran/Winteracter-specific productivity features, including:
      • New "Insert" option allows you to quickly add any of the following to your source:
        • Winteracter library call
        • Winteracter symbolic name
        • Resource identifier
        • Message processing
        • New subroutine/function
        • File
        • Date/Time

        These options further enhance Winteracter's "visual" capability. The library call and message processing insertion options are particular time savers!

      • A "Goto Routine" option makes it easy to find your way round multi-routine source files. Just hit Ctrl+R for an instant alphabetical list of the routines, modules, etc. in the current source file.
      • The "Find All" option has been extended to allow the routine which contains each matched line to be reported.
      • Many other new options : Multiple file buffers (edit up to 20 files simultaneously), find-difference, save-selection, delete/join/transpose lines, indent/unindent, comment/uncomment, case conversion, open recent files, font selection, preference management and help.
    • Minor resource editor enhancements include support for preprocessing (useful when porting between Windows/Linux or when creating resources shared between multiple applications) and control over the initial format of floating point field/cell values.
  • Memory Metafiles
    • Graphics metafiles can now be created in memory. Logically, this is equivalent to the existing memory bitmap capability, except that a list of drawing instructions are stored instead of a pixel based image. A new MF subroutine group has been added offering the following functions:
      • Create/destroy memory metafiles.
      • Save/load memory metafiles to/from disk.
      • Play back memory metafiles to the current drawable.
      • Copy memory metafile to the Windows clipboard.
      • CGM format metafiles supported under both Windows and Linux.
      • EMF format metafiles supported under Windows.

      Other new memory metafile functionality includes:

      • Memory metafiles selectable as target drawable via IGrSelect, exactly as for windows, memory bitmaps and dialog fields.
      • WDialogPutImage allows an EMF metafile to be specified as the picture to be displayed in a dialog field, under Windows.
  • Graphics Primitives
    • A set of curve plotting and point calculation routines have been added to draw Bezier, cubic B-Spline and coincident curves. These are device independent routines which work with all Winteracter output formats. The point calculation routines can be used to fill polygons with curved borders.
    • The number of line types supported in GDI output under Windows NT/2000/XP has been increased to the full set of 7, as supported by Winteracter's other graphics drivers. The line patterns used on NT/2000/XP have also been reworked to give results which are substantially superior to the standard Windows line types.
    • The number of line types supported in CGM output has also been increased to seven (though is dependent on the CGM importing software).
  • OpenGL
    • A set of text handling routines have been added to plug this notable gap in the OpenGL interface. These routines are closely modelled on the equivalent Winteracter graphics text routines, as introduced at v4.0. The particular facilities provided by the OpenGL text routines include:
      • Access to any True Type font, under Windows.
      • Vector based fonts under both Windows and Linux.
      • 3D text extrusion option.
      • Write either text strings or numeric values.
      • String measurement.
      • Alignment control.
    • Brief Fortran oriented descriptions of all the OpenGL GL/GLU 1.10 function descriptions have been added to the help files. These are intended to supplement rather than replace the numerous existing sources of OpenGL documentation, which are almost invariably C oriented. At the same time, all of the supplied OpenGL related documentation has been collected together in a dedicated help file.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Windows. Windows can be hidden under program control after they have been displayed. The window icon can also be changed at run time.
    • Text Editor Windows. The WEditFile routine now offers a multi-buffer option, allowing up to 20 files to be edited in the same editor window simultaneously.
    • Bitmaps. A pair of routines have been added to put/get part of a memory bitmap to/from a colour data array. Keyboard scrolling has been extended in modeless/semi-modeless bitmap viewer windows. Memory bitmaps can be copied to the Windows clipboard.
    • File Selector. A replacement for the standard Motif file selector is now provided under Linux, upgrading the functionality of WSelectFile to that of the Windows version (e.g. support for multi-file selection).
    • Dialogs. Individual treeview strings can be changed at run-time, as can dialog title-bar icons. Individual options can also be appended to menu fields.
    • Euro. Several of the supplied software fonts have been extended to include the Euro currency symbol. Documentation has also been extended to explain how to enter and display the Euro symbol in dialogs and graphics under Windows.
    • Decimal Point. The local decimal point, as defined in Windows Control Panel, can optionally be used in dialogs, string/numeric conversion and numeric graphics-text output.
    • Toolbar Buttons. The supplied selection of pre-defined toolbar buttons has been expanded.
    • WMF. The IGrReplay routine now allows one 16-bit WMF file to be embedded into another under Windows.
    • Information Functions. New WInfoDrawable, WInfoMetafile and WInfoGraphics information functions have been added.
    • Help2HTM. The help to HTML converter has been updated at v4.10a to include support for Netscape 6.x and Mozilla. Our Linux help files have also been regenerated to provide compatibility with these browsers. Users of the initial 4.10 release can download an update which includes these changes.
  • Compilers/Platforms
    • LF95 5.7 (Windows). The new version of LF95 which uses the Microsoft linker is supported. Note that this compiler requires a different Winteracter library to previous releases, so an upgrade will be required. (Of course, previous Lahey compilers remain supported. The Lahey/Win32 version of Winteracter 4.10 therefore includes support for all of LF90 3.50-4.50, Elf90 4.0 and LF95 5.0-5.7.)
    • Visual Fortran. This release has been built with VF 6.6, but compatibility with all of VF 5.0-6.6 has been maintained.
    • FTN95. The Salford implementation has been built with the recently released FTN95 2.54.
    • Linux. X/Winteracter now requires a Linux version based on glibc 2.1 (kernel 2.2) or later, e.g. Red Hat 6 or later. The LF95 Linux version has been built with the v6.1 compiler release.

  • Winteracter 4.0

November 7th 2001

View the full version 4.0 release notes.

New features at Winteracter v4.0 include:

  • Resource Editor
    • A new resource editor lies at the core of v4.0. The new editor combines the functionality of the four previously separate dialog, menu, icon/cursor and toolbar editors. The new resource editor greatly streamlines GUI design and management of the associated resource files. Navigation of your dialogs, menus, etc. is now much easier, with the entire contents of the program resource accessible via a single treeview. No need to constantly load your resource into multiple tools! The combined editor also provides greater consistency of behaviour when editing different resource types. Various minor enhancements have also been implemented, including:
      • The pre-defined resource files used by various common dialogs and special purpose windows can now be managed from the resource editor, eliminating any remaining need to edit the resource file manually.
      • When editing a menu, the menu mimic more accurately reproduces the expected run time appearance of the menu.
      • The 'copy' option now works on entire menus and toolbars, as well as dialogs.
      • Arbitrary image sizes between 8x8 and 48x48 pixels are now supported by the toolbar and image editors.
      • Flood fill, hotspot and mirror/flip tools have been added to the image editor.
      • The image editor now supports 256 colour cursors.
  • Graphics Text
    • Graphics text handling has undergone a major redesign in v4.0, providing a much more concise calling interface and additional functionality:
      • Access to any Windows font in GDI graphics output to screen, bitmap, printer or metafile.
      • The need for external software font files has been eliminated.
      • Opaque text is now supported.
      • Numeric values can be written directly without requiring intermediate conversion to strings.
      • Vector fonts can be drawn in a bold style.
      • More accurate measurement of string length in GDI output.

      The functionality of the new graphics text handling routines renders the GC, TX and FS subroutine groups largely redundant, so these have all been moved to the "obsolete routines" group (i.e. still supported, but use is now discouraged).

  • Graphics Import/Export
    • CGM. Both the CGM import and export drivers have been improved:
      • The CGM importer has undergone a major upgrade. Many CGM features which the importer did not previously support are now recognised. This allows a much wider range of third party CGM files to be read.
      • Output file size from the CGM driver has been reduced.
      • Various minor improvements to the CGM driver.
    • BMP/PCX/PNG. Bit image files loaded via IGrLoadImage are now reproduced in graphics hardcopy/export output when any of the following drivers are selected:
      • Windows Print Manager
      • Windows Metafiles (both 16-bit and 32-bit files)
      • CGM (uses CGM's "cell array" feature)
      • Raster hardcopy (i.e. HP and Epson type printers)
      • Raster image files (i.e. PCX/BMP/PNG files)

      Also, monochrome bit image files can now be read by IGrLoadImageData.

    • EMF. 32-bit Enhanced Windows metafiles are written slightly differently with several benefits:
      • EMF's are imported at the correct scale into a wider range of applications.
      • IGrReplayArea now works more reliably when zooming in on a selected area of a Winteracter-generated EMF.
      • IGrFileInfo can now report the dimensions of our EMF files.
      • Clipboard EMF's now import successfully into a wider range of third party applications.
    • DXF. Minor improvements have been made to the DXF driver:
      • Image size is no longer limited to 100 inches.
      • Output file size has been reduced by about 10%.
      • DXF's CIRCLE and ARC primitives are now used, where appropriate. This can also reduce file size and allows better rendering in imported applications.
    • Print Manager. The current Windows printer selection is remembered when reinitialising the Print Manager driver, rather than reselecting the default printer.
  • PlotConv
    • Our graphics file viewer/converter has been upgraded:
      • A much wider range of third party CGM files can be read.
      • CGM files containing bit images ("cell arrays") can be viewed, printed and converted.
      • The "view full screen" option has been replaced by a more useful "view in a window" option.
      • The aspect ratio of the image being viewed is now maintained in the preview field, the viewer window and in hardcopy output.
      • Line thickness is now reproduced when viewing CGM, HP-GL and HP-GL/2 files.
      • Various options are now offered when converting between vector file formats.
      • An option to merge all the images when viewing multi-picture vector files has added. This is useful when viewing files which split images into multiple layers (some GIS packages do this).
      • BMP, PCX and PNG images can now be converted into WMF, EMF or CGM files (i.e. metafiles with embedded bitmaps).
  • Operating System
    • Temporary dir/files. WInfoFilename can be used to obtain names of a directory for temporary files or of a unique temporary file.
    • Drive id. The Windows 'media presence' check has been extended to report the serial number of the specified drive.
    • File info. A routine has been added to report the size, time/date and attributes (read only, etc.) of a specific file. Another routine has been added which allows file attributes to be set.
  • Mouse
    • Double clicks. Mouse double clicks can now be reported.
    • Wheel mouse. Support for wheel mice has been extended to bitmap viewer windows and grids, under Windows 98/Me/NT/2K.
    • WInfoMouse. A new mouse information function reports the number of mouse buttons and the mouse cursor type.
  • Miscellaneous
    • Windows. Child windows can now be opened inside other child windows. Similarly, child windows can now be 'owned' by other child windows. (Note: This functionality is only fully implemented in the Win32 version, due to limitations imposed by X Windows.)
    • Colour. Handling of 24-bit colour values has been standardised across the entire library. This provides a more consistent calling interface, allowing the same values to be used by all colour handling routines. A set of colour conversion functions have also been added, which simplify conversion between 24-bit RGB values and (red,green,blue), (cyan,magenta,yellow) or (hue,lightness,saturation) triplets.
    • Spinners. FieldChanged messages are now reported when a spinner is used to change the value of a numeric field/cell. (Note: This enhancement was actually added at v3.10d, but is listed here for those who may have missed this change.)
Note : Following a review of the platforms, compilers and formats which we support, the following changes are effective from v4.0:
  • This release has been tested with Windows XP. While earlier Winteracter releases also appear to function correctly with XP, v4.0 is the first to formally support this platform. If XP related fixes are required, these will therefore only be available for v4.0 or later.
  • Winteracter development is now focussed on Windows and Linux platforms running on Intel and compatible processors. This decision has been forced by recent industry developments and the overwhelming market dominance of Intel/AMD processors. The SPARC and Alpha versions have been frozen at v3.10.
  • The obsolete Lotus PIC graphics file format is no longer supported.
  • Support for the Fujistu-branded Intel/Linux Fortran 95 compiler has been dropped in favour of the more popular Lahey branded equivalent (LF95). Fujitsu briefly marketed this compiler under their own name, but withdrew the product in favour of the Lahey equivalent some while ago.


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