Developer prepares Windows 3.1 compatible application called WinGPT. A WinGPT app called “AI Assistant for Windows 3.1” connects natively to the ChatGPT API. According to a blog post on the developer site dialup.net, the WinGPT app was developed so that Windows 3.1 users don’t feel shut out from the AI chatbot buzz of 2023.
WinGPT is written in C, compiled with Open Watcom v2, and uses standard Windows APIs. This makes the resulting app simple and much like the Windows 3.1 era, as you can see. The same developer Preparation The TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.3 protocol library enables Windows 3.1 to natively connect to the ChatGPT API. Compared to the latest apps, the download is very light, with a zip file of just 218 KB containing the Readme, the application, and his aforementioned TLS 1.3 DLL support files.
The current WinGPT app is advertised as being able to help Windows 3.1 users. Do research, answer questions and answers, offer advice, tell jokes, participate in other fun chats, and act as a productivity helper by drafting documents and more. upon. However, the developer admits that this is not the best way to access his ChatGPT and can be limited and unreliable.
Part of the WinGPT problem for users is due to the limited memory available on Win 3.1 machines. “His JSON responses for modern APIs are not particularly optimized in terms of size, and OpenAI’s API is no exception,” said the developer. Additionally, to save memory, the app does not send chat history to API calls. In other words, ChatGPT does not use previous conversation context in this app.
Despite these shortcomings, getting WinGPT up and running seems much simpler, easier, and more full-featured than the DOS ChatGPT client we reported in March.
If you want to try WinGPT, go and grab Lightweight download (scroll to bottom of linked article). Licensed under GPL v2. The source code is also open to the public. According to the developer, the program works not only on Windows 3.1, but also on “any 16-bit or 32-bit version of Windows starting with Windows 3.1.” However, it requires a Winsock implementation and cannot be run directly on Windows 64-bit editions (requires an emulator such as Wine). Finally, you’ll need your OpenAI API key, so you’ll need to enter it in the program’s options menu before you start.
