bonar@pitt.UUCP (Dr. Jeffrey Bonar) (12/19/88)
I have an invitation for net readers - create a metaphor for computing systems that goes beyond the desktop cliche. Four years ago, Apple had something with the Macintosh desktop: a new way to think about computing. Now, everyone is copying the desktop: Microsoft, IBM, AT&T. Even the new NeXT machine provides little more than a desktop with some cute simulated depth. Marshall McLuhan said that a new medium always began by imitating the old medium: cow paths were paved to make roads for the "horseless carriage", film began by putting a camera in front of a play, and finally, computer screens now look like a desktop. What if we really let go into our new medium; what should a computer work space really look like? William Gibson described a cyberspace where computer cowboys shared a: "consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts ... A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding ..." (pg 51, Ace paperback edition of Neuromancer) What does your cyberspace, or whatever you would call it, look like. I'm interested in suggestions that are practical and serious, in particular, suggestions constrained by current technology in screens, keyboards, mice, etc. I'm also interested in suggestions that are fanciful and poetic. We get to create a medium from scratch - what should it look like. Note: please mail your suggestions to me directly. I will post a collection of the results. Send suggestions to: Internet: bonar@vax.cs.pittsburgh.edu or, using normal mail: Jeffrey Bonar 708 LRDC University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA 15260
thsa@rhi.hi.is (Thorvaldur S Arnarson) (12/21/88)
In article <4361@pitt.UUCP> bonar@pitt.UUCP (Dr. Jeffrey Bonar) writes: >I have an invitation for net readers - create a metaphor for computing >systems that goes beyond the desktop cliche. Four years ago, Apple >had something with the Macintosh desktop: a new way to think about >computing. Now, everyone is copying the desktop: Microsoft, IBM, Why is it Apple allways given credit for the desktop idea, they copied it from XEROX's Smalltalk project! -- - Greetings Thorvaldur S. Arnarson
keithd@gryphon.COM (Keith Doyle) (12/24/88)
In article <688@krafla.rhi.hi.is> thsa@rhi.hi.is (Thorvaldur S Arnarson) writes: .In article <4361@pitt.UUCP> bonar@pitt.UUCP (Dr. Jeffrey Bonar) writes: .>I have an invitation for net readers - create a metaphor for computing .>systems that goes beyond the desktop cliche. Four years ago, Apple .>had something with the Macintosh desktop: a new way to think about .>computing. Now, everyone is copying the desktop: Microsoft, IBM, . .Why is it Apple allways given credit for the desktop idea, .they copied it from XEROX's Smalltalk project! Why? Because Apple was the first outfit that had even the foggiest idea of how to market it, that's why. Keith Doyle keithd@gryphon.COM gryphon!keithd gryphon!keithd@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (12/24/88)
In article <688@krafla.rhi.hi.is>, thsa@rhi.hi.is (Thorvaldur S Arnarson) writes: > Why is it Apple allways given credit for the desktop idea, > they copied it from XEROX's Smalltalk project! Why is it that people always confuse the Xerox Smalltalk project with the system that actually did introduce the desktop idea, namely the Xerox Star office automation system. And had a better basic paradigm than Apple, I might add. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Work: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. `-_-' Home: bigtex!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.uu.net. 'U` Opinions may not represent the policies of FICC or the Xenix Support group.
ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth) (12/30/88)
In article <2547@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes: >Why is it that people always confuse the Xerox Smalltalk project with the >system that actually did introduce the desktop idea, namely the Xerox Star >office automation system. And had a better basic paradigm than Apple, I >might add. Xerox Star was a commercial product. The work at Xerox PARC that preceded this was mostly on the Alto machines. The Alto is documented a number of places. Some of the original Smalltalk work was done on the Alto (or variants of it) and certainly pre-dated the Xerox Star product. Someone who knows more about the history of developments at PARC (and how this work followed from earlier work by people such as Englebart at SRI) might wish to post a concise summary of the developments. The ACM history of computer workstations workshop should have some of this for those who are interested.
eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (12/31/88)
In article <7487@watcgl.waterloo.edu> ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth) writes: >Someone who knows more about the history of developments at PARC (and how >this work followed from earlier work by people such as Englebart at SRI) >might wish to post a concise summary of the developments. The ACM history >of computer workstations workshop should have some of this for those who >are interested. Kelly you should ask Taylor or Sutherland. Other references to consider: %A Giuliana Lavendel, ed. %T A Decade of Research: Xerox Palo Alto Research Center 1970-1980 %I R. R. Bowker %C New York %D 1981? %X This book is a collection some of the best known Xerox papers in the computer, systems, and physical sciences. Hard to find. This book was given out after the 10th anniversary of the founding of PARC. Also the article on PARC in IEEE [You know, that other computer society] Spectrum Oct. 1985 I also endorse the Workstations conference book and I hope a videotape also comes out. It was a great conference. The Alto was also an important influence on my perspectives in computing, but off to our NeXT toy. Another gross generalization from --eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers: "Mailers?! HA!", "If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology." {uunet,hplabs,ncar,decwrl,allegra,tektronix}!ames!aurora!eugene "Send mail, avoid follow-ups. If enough, I'll summarize."
peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) (01/03/89)
Myth #1: > } .Why is it Apple allways given credit for the desktop idea, > } .they copied it from XEROX's Smalltalk project! No, this is a myth. The desktop idea came from the Xerox Star office automation system. Myth #2: > because they were the first outfit that felt it was worth marketing. This is a myth. The Xerox Star was a commercial product. I was blown away by it when I saw it at NCC 82. Apple gets the credit because they took a small fraction of the functionality of the Star and crammed it into a 128K machine that could be sold cheaply enough to compete with PCs. They still haven't brought it up to the standard of the original. -- Peter da Silva, Xenix Support, Ferranti International Controls Corporation. Work: uunet.uu.net!ficc!peter, peter@ficc.uu.net, +1 713 274 5180. `-_-' Home: bigtex!texbell!sugar!peter, peter@sugar.uu.net. 'U` Opinions may not represent the policies of FICC or the Xenix Support group.
garye@hpdsla.HP.COM (Gary Ericson) (01/13/89)
> Someone who knows more about the history of developments at PARC (and how > this work followed from earlier work by people such as Englebart at SRI) > might wish to post a concise summary of the developments. ---------- This book title just came across my desk, and it looks like it covers this topic. I haven't seen the book itself. Fumbling the future: how Xerox invented, then ignored, the first personal computer - DK Smith & RC Alexander - 1988 Gary Ericson - Hewlett-Packard, Workstation Technology Division phone: (408)746-5098 mailstop: 101N email: gary@hpdsla9.hp.com