Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:14308 comp.windows.misc:368
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!well!rogue
From: rogue@well.UUCP (L. Brett Glass)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.windows.misc
Subject: Re: Credit where credit is due
Message-ID: <5508@well.UUCP>
Date: 22 Mar 88 22:51:31 GMT
References: <1624@thorin.cs.unc.edu> <1121@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <1750@thorin.cs.unc.edu>
Reply-To: rogue@well.UUCP (L. Brett Glass)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 23
Keywords: window human computer interface

The above-referenced article is a good list, but may be somewhat
Xerox-centric -- i.e., people who were at Xerox may not have known
that ideas had surfaced earlier.

A few examples:

1) Joanne Dow of BIX claims to have created a version of UCSD Pascal
   that dimmed "disabled" menu items as early as 1977.

2) Ivan Sutherland's early drawing systems changed the cursor to show
   context and/or system modes. Some also used icons. In fact, it
   is likely that a large number of the user interface elements
   listed above were anticipated by Sutherland.

3) Early CAD systems done during the 60's and early 70's at GM,
   Ford, and Texas Instruments (to name a few) incorporated
   many of the same elements.

The seeming "obviousness" of many of these elements makes it doubtful
whether anyone should be able to claim a "right" to them. It may
simply have been a question of who had a need for them (or a machine
powerful enough to implement them).

<rogue>