[HN Gopher] Pictureworld: A Concept for Future Office Systems (1...
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       Pictureworld: A Concept for Future Office Systems (1980) [pdf]
        
       Author : bitsavers
       Score  : 29 points
       Date   : 2022-12-28 15:35 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (bitsavers.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (bitsavers.org)
        
       | bitsavers wrote:
       | difficult to find IBM research paper referenced in histories of
       | Apple Lisa UI development
        
       | convolvatron wrote:
       | "A principal may be expected to take pride in his dealings with
       | other principals, in his expertise in some special field, or in
       | macroscopic evidence of the results of his work, such as sales
       | volume, cases successfully handled, etc. He is less likely to be
       | motivated by the development of supporting skills, such a
       | learning the intricacies of his firm's computing system. This may
       | be contrasted with the pride a secretary might take in such
       | skills as typing, shorthand, or filing. Furthermore, a principal
       | will devote less time to the exercise of such skills."
       | 
       | 42 years
        
       | johndoe0815 wrote:
       | Without bitsavers, a large part of computing history would be
       | lost. This is about one of the highly relevant developments in
       | the history of personal computing - the commercialization of the
       | graphical user interface. Thanks for posting this!
        
         | Animats wrote:
         | This was years after the Xerox PARC Alto.
        
           | bitsavers wrote:
           | It was an influence on the use of icons in the Lisa UI,
           | referenced by the other papers in the same directory. Note
           | the original comment was the commercialization of the
           | graphical UI. This paper was also before the release of the
           | Xerox Star in 1981
        
           | cmrdporcupine wrote:
           | Smalltalk-80 on Alto had no icons, or desktop metaphor. We
           | didn't get that until the Star (Xerox Dandelion) and the
           | Lisa.
           | 
           | I had always assumed the Lisa folks took that from the Star,
           | but seeing this paper I'm wondering if that assumption is not
           | fully correct.
           | 
           | The Alto was a beautiful machine, but the software that ran
           | on it doesn't bear a lot of resemblance to a Mac or Lisa or
           | even the Star. Fire up the classic Smalltalk-80 interface on
           | Squeak and you'll see what I mean. It's a brilliant system,
           | but in the end it's an IDE written in Smalltalk for writing
           | more Smalltalk programs. There's not a lot of _" end user"_
           | there. Other software that ran on the Alto wasn't much
           | different.
        
           | johndoe0815 wrote:
           | Yes, but Xerox unfortunately never managed to turn their
           | great ideas into a (commercially successful) product.
           | Otherwise we would perhaps all work with Smalltalk or Lisp
           | machines today - or maybe Oberon, Niklaus Wirth's work was
           | also significantly influenced by his sabbatical at Xerox
           | PARC...
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-28 23:00 UTC)