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From: denbeste@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM (Steven Den Beste)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: A walk in the PARC (with the first line)
Message-ID: <1441@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM>
Date: Fri, 29-May-87 19:26:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: cc5.1441
Posted: Fri May 29 19:26:21 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 2-Jun-87 01:16:38 EDT
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 44


[Sorry, folks, I got nailed by the lineeater again. When will I learn??]

I worked at Tektronix when PARC was developing what they referred to as
SMALLTALK (predecessor of the MAC and of WORKBENCH, among other things).

They realized that they had something truly special - a revolutionary
approach to human/computer interfaces, and that it would go right
into the toilet unless it got widespread industry acceptance fast.

They therefore chose six (I think, but it may have been five) companies
and gave them unlimited rights to all the development they had done, and
asked them (nay, begged them) to develop products with it. Tektronix
was one of them. I think Apple was another.

I just read an article from Chuck McManis who (if I am not oversensitive)
implied that Apple stole the concept - that is far from the truth.

Incidentally, the only one of the Xerox products I have used (the Star)
is significantly worse than the MAC, or the Amiga. Their version of a
word processing program required far too fine of hand motion - non-surgeons
would find it almost impossible to use (as I did). Specifically, they didn't
use the "sweep" mechanism to describe areas to move. Instead, on the left
side of a line was a place to land the mouse that indicated "the line".
The problem was at the beginning of a paragraph - You could land on the
first character, the first word, the line or the paragraph itself - and all
these (nonlabelled!) hot spots were within a few millimeters of each other
in terms of hand movement. Eeek.

Anyway, so far as I know, Xerox makes no claim to exclusivity to the Smalltalk
concept, and neither wants nor gets any royalties for it. I myself only
feel resentment when I hear people who think that Apple invented all of this!
(Not at Apple, at the historical-illiterates who don't know any better...)

Quick, Nurse, my Valium!


-- 

     Steven Den Beste
     Bolt Beranek & Newman, Cambridge MA
     denbeste@bbn.com  (ARPA or CSNET)

"The voice within the candle whispers of a timeless peace beyond." - Paul Winter