It was created as part of the NSF-funded Visual Geometry Project led by Eugene Klotz and Doris Schattschneider from 1986 to 1991 at Swarthmore College.

[1] Nicholas Jackiw, a student at the time, was the original designer and programmer of the software, and inventor of its trademarked "Dynamic Geometry" approach; he later moved to Key Curriculum Press, KCP Technologies, and McGraw-Hill Education to continue ongoing design and implementation of the software over multiple major releases and hardware platforms.

It also can perform transformations (translations, rotations, reflections, dilations) of geometric figures drawn or constructed on screen.

The program allows "cheat" transformations to create figures impossible to construct under the compass and straightedge rules (such as the regular nonagon).

The transform function allows the user to create points in relation to objects, which include distance, angle, ratio, and others.

WSP removes distracting interfaces—it has no menus, displays no dialog boxes, and does not require users to “select” objects to apply commands to them.

In contrast, other dynamic mathematics software often leaves students unable to predict the effects of their next action.