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RE: LECTURE: "The Xerox Star Runs One More Time."
David,
Talk about deja vu... I was involved in a port of this software to X
Windows and Unix in 1992. DEC invested lots of money and manpower in
the effort. Xerox's Xsoft division was going to port the product
(renamed Globalview) to SunOS, AIX and Ultrix and/or OSF. This was back
in the good old days when people still thought that Unix had a hope in
hell of winning the desktop.
Now, here's the story of the Star you'll never hear at the Xerox/Sun
event... In the late 70's, the folks at PARC had developed a machine
called the Alto. The predecessor to the Star, it had the bit mapped
raster display, the object metaphor GUI, the mouse, and an Ethernet LAN
interface. All documents lived on file servers on the network. All
printing was accomplished through print severs. Authentication was
accomplished by a network service so you could log into any workstation
and your desktop would come up just as you had left it, whether you
were in Palo Alto or Rochester, NY. It was all amazingly similar to
everything we take for granted today, and some of it we still don't
have yet (thanks to Bill Gates).
The sad part of the story is that the exec's back at Xerox HQ were
running a copier company, not a computer company. The management fully
believed that computers were going to rapidly result in a "paperless"
office. And for Xerox, a company that made all its money building
machines that manipulate paper, that was just a little too scary. If
only they had known that the computer revolution would be responsible
for killing more trees than anyone ever imagined. So, they fumbled
around rather than introducing the product. In 1981, IBM introduced the
PC and the DOS standalone desktop paradigm of computing was
established. In 1982, the Star was introduced, but at that point, the
mouse and the client/server LAN was just to radical and expensive. It
was too late for Xerox.
Working with Xerox on the port of the Star software was an intense
experience indeed. I'll never forget some of the meetings with the GUI
design folks. They were really fanatic about preserving the document
object oriented metaphor. The notion that an icon on the desktop might
represent an instance of a running application or a button for
launching an application was absolutely unacceptable to them. In the
end, they decided to just have their proprietary desktop live in a
window. Windows and icons inside of another window. Now that's a great
metaphor.
The port to Unix was only ever completed on SunOS, and I don't think
they sold too many before everybody in the marketplace realized that
Unix was not going to rule the desktop. Oh well.
I have some very interesting and nostalgic Xerox Star and Alto docs and
literature. If anyone is interested, I can bring them in August.
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: David Corbishley [SMTP:david_corbishley@email.msn.com]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 1998 4:56 PM
To: deltoids@mcws.net
Subject: Fw: LECTURE: "The Xerox Star Runs One More Time."
-----Original Message-----
From: Dag Spicer <spicer@tcm.org>
To: chc@tcm.org <chc@tcm.org>
Date: Monday, June 08, 1998 1:02 PM
Subject: LECTURE: "The Xerox Star Runs One More Time."
>
> Bay Area Computer History Perspectives
> and
> The Computer Museum History Center
> present
>
> "The Xerox Star runs one more time"
>
>
> 5:30 PM, Wednesday, June 17
> Auditorium
> Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
> 3333 Coyote Hill Road
> Palo Alto
>
> David Curbow David Liddle David Smith
> Sun Microsystems Interval Research Stagecraft Software
>
> Robert Belleville Robert Garner
> Clockmaker Sun Microsystems
>
>
>Seventeen years ago, the computer interface technology we take for
>granted today was new and strange, difficult even to describe. These
>quotes from a 1981 Xerox Star brochure show how people were fumbling
for
>words to describe the new computer desktop technology:
>
> "Objects displayed on the Xerox 8010 screen are freely movable using
the
> hand-held pointer, or 'mouse' ... this unique digital pointer ...
will
> also initiate sequences for the relocation, copying, and deletion of
> material, and the retrieval and transmission of documents."
>
> "The iconographic symbols ... bear labels which identify them as
folders,
> in- and out-baskets, file drawers, and other accessories comprising
> what amounts to an 'electronic desk top'."
>
> "Abstractly speaking, the spreadsheet expresses variable dependencies
> over time. It is basically an electronic matrix with a full menu of
> matrix manipulation tools."
>
>Mice, folders, and spreadsheets were all new and strange to the
>marketplace. Even who exactly was going to use the computer wasn't
>always clear.
>
>This talk will feature a Star running, with commentary. The display
>will be shown on a wide video screen for the entire audience. Eleven
>other Stars behind the scenes are being used for parts to keep this
one
>machine running, and this could be the last occasion ever to see a
Star
>run.
>
>David Liddle directed the Star development effort, and will provide an
>overview. David Curbow and David Smith will do a demonstration of the
>user interface, and then Robert Belleville and Robert Garner will
>discuss the Star hardware---which was also innovative.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
>These talks are sponsored by The Computer Museum History Center and
Sun
>Microsystems.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
>
>Directions to Xerox PARC in Palo Alto:
>
> From Highway 101---take the Oregon Expressway exit west 2 miles to El
> Camino Real. Oregon Expressway becomes Page Mill Road at El Camino
> Real. Follow Page Mill Road another 1.7 miles to Coyote Hill Road (no
> light), just past Foothill Expwy, and turn left. Proceed 1/2 mile up
> Coyote Hill Road, over the top of the hill, to PARC. Follow the signs
> to the auditorium.
>
> From Highway 280---take the Page Mill Road exit. Go east one mile on
> Page Mill, and then turn right on Coyote Hill Road (no light).
Proceed
> 1/2 mile on Coyote Hill Road, over the top of the hill, and PARC will
> be on your left. Follow the signs to the auditorium.
>
>--
>Dag Spicer
>Manager, Historical Collections
>The Computer Museum History Center
>Moffett Federal Airfield
>Mountain View, CA 94035
>
>Offices: Building T12-A
>Exhibit Area: Building 126
>
>Tel: +1 650 604 2578
>Fax: +1 650 604 2594
>E-m: spicer@tcm.org
>WWW: http://www.tcm.org/history/
>
><spicer@tcm.org> PGP: 15E31235 (E6ECDF74 349D1667 260759AD 7D04C178)
>
>SV/T12
>
>--
>Dag Spicer
>Manager, Historical Collections
>The Computer Museum History Center
>Moffett Federal Airfield
>Mountain View, CA 94035
>
>Offices: Building T12-A
>Exhibit Area: Building 126
>
>Tel: +1 650 604 2578
>Fax: +1 650 604 2594
>E-m: spicer@tcm.org
>WWW: http://www.tcm.org/history/
>
><spicer@tcm.org> PGP: 15E31235 (E6ECDF74 349D1667 260759AD 7D04C178)
>
>SV/T12
>
>
>