Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!ksbooth
From: ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor
Keywords: desktop metaphor, graphical interfaces, computing environments
Message-ID: <7487@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Date: 30 Dec 88 03:56:28 GMT
References: <4361@pitt.UUCP> <688@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <2547@ficc.uu.net>
Reply-To: ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 16

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.