ittai@shemesh.GBA.NYU.EDU (Ittai Hershman) (12/15/89)
Yes, it is a "must read". Unfortunately, it's not terribly well written, or more precisely, it is not well edited. This seemed ironic to me at the time I read it -- just as Xerox fumbled, this book fumbled in telling the story. It is a great story which the authors did a good job of researching. Had a little more work gone into it, this book would have had a far greater impact. Fumbling The Future: how Xerox invented, then ignored, the first personal computer / Douglas K. Smith and Robert C. Alexander. Morrow, 1988. ISBN 0-688-06959-2. $19.95. I would also recommend: The History of Personal Workstations / Edited by Adele Goldberg. Addison Wesley/ACM Press, 1988. ISBN 0-201-11259-0. $46.50 for ACM members via the ACM. -Ittai
ck@voa3.UUCP (Chris Kern) (12/16/89)
For an excellent exposition of what Xerox got right in the Star and subsequent products, see "The Xerox Star: A Retrospective" in the Sept., 1989, issue of the IEEE journal, "Computer." -- Chris Kern Voice of America, Washington, D.C. ...uunet!voa3!ck +1 202-485-7020