Happy 50th anniversary, the introduction of the computer mouse

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Also, "'what you see is what you get' editing, text and graphics displayed on a single screen, shared-screen videoconferencing, outlining, windows, version control, context-sensitive help and hyperlinks."

The Mother of All Demos



The first prototype of a computer mouse, as designed by Bill English from Douglas Engelbart's sketches

"The Mother of All Demos" is a name retroactively applied to a landmark computer demonstration, given at the Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ACM/IEEE)—Computer Society's Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco, which was presented by Douglas Engelbart on December 9, 1968.

The live demonstration featured the introduction of a complete computer hardware and software system called the oN-Line System or, more commonly, NLS. The 90-minute presentation essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern personal computing: windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and command input, video conferencing, the computer mouse, word processing, dynamic file linking, revision control, and a collaborative real-time editor (collaborative work). Engelbart's presentation was the first to publicly demonstrate all of these elements in a single system. The demonstration was highly influential and spawned similar projects at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. The underlying technologies influenced both the Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows graphical user interface operating systems in the 1980s and 1990s.....

Background

Much of Engelbart's thought that led to the development of his Augmentation Research Center (ARC), as well as the oN-Line System was derived from the "research culture" of World War II and the early Cold War. A notable source of inspiration to Engelbart was the article "As We May Think", written by Vannevar Bush in The Atlantic magazine, which Engelbart read while stationed as a US Navy radar technician in the Philippines in 1946. In Engelbart's view, in order to steer society into the right use of scientific knowledge derived from the war, that knowledge would need to be better managed and regulated.
....

There's one think you have to say about the military: they certainly have a knack for training people.

DYLAN TWENEY
12.09.1007:00 AM
DEC. 9, 1968: THE MOTHER OF ALL DEMOS

1968: Computer scientist Douglas Engelbart kicks off the personal computer revolution with a product demonstration that is so amazing it inspires a generation of technologists. It will become known as "the mother of all demos."

The presentation included the debut of the computer mouse, which Engelbart used to control an onscreen pointer in exactly the same way we do today. For a world used to thinking of computers as impersonal boxes that read punched cards, whir awhile, then spit out reams of teletype paper, this kind of real-time graphical control was amazing enough.

But Engelbart went beyond merely demonstrating a new input device — way beyond. His demo that day in San Francisco's Brooks Hall also premiered "what you see is what you get" editing, text and graphics displayed on a single screen, shared-screen videoconferencing, outlining, windows, version control, context-sensitive help and hyperlinks. Bam!

What's more, it was likely the first appearance of computer-generated slides, complete with bullet lists and Engelbart reading aloud every word onscreen. Fortunately, the proto-PowerPoint section only made up a small fraction of his otherwise understated and impressive tour de force. And though it took years for the industry to catch up, many later computer scientists acknowledged their debt to Engelbart.
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[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Was just remembering what it was like when we went from DOS to windows. LONG time ago

Did we go from DOS to Windows or was there something in between?

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. You've made the change to Windows? How do you like it?

Somewhere, I have a laptop than runs on DR-DOS.

What? Latest release, July 2011?

Maybe I need to clean more often.

[hunter]

3. Before Windows I used Geoworks and DR-DOS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEOS_%2816-bit_operating_system%29

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS

I browsed the internet using plain text terminal software.

The last I used Windows on my home machines was a heavily modified version of 98SE.

From there I moved on to Debian Linux.

[Pluvious]

4. There was a handy little DOS utility...

I wish I could remember the name.

It let you launch tools, kind of had a desktop of sorts, and most helpful, it provided for multiple virtual desktops you could switch between.

I finally gave in and upgraded to Windows 3.1.

Which all was a huge step up from using punch cards and printouts in college !!

LOL

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. 50 years ago, 'the mother of all demos' foretold our tech future

Here is that demo:

50 years ago, 'the mother of all demos' foretold our tech future

Doug Engelbart gave the world its first taste of hypertext, a mouse, networking and more.

Steve Dent, @stevetdent
3h ago in Personal Computing

Innovation usually happens in slow, measured steps over many years, but a demo in 1968 transformed the world of personal computers in just 90 minutes. In a presentation dubbed "the mother of all demos," Douglas Engelbart showed off technology that would lead directly to Apple's Macintosh, the internet, Windows, Google Docs, the computer mouse and much, much more. The most insane part was that it happened 50 years ago in 1968, when microchips were just a gleam in scientists' eyes.

Engelbart, who died in 2013, was working at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) at Menlo Park when he presented the demo at a San Francisco computer meetup via video conference. That alone was an impressive technical feat (showing what was essentially the first version of Skype), but what was to come in the next 90 minutes changed things forever.

"If in your office, you as an intellectual worker, were supplied with a computer display backed up by a computer that was alive for you all day and was instantly responsive to every action you have, how much value could you derive from that?" Engelbart asked. "Well, this basically characterizes what we've been pursuing for many years in what we call augmented human intellect research center at the Stanford Research Institute."

The entire demonstration was performed live, to show rather than just talk about the technology and prove that computers could actually be "responsive." It was a brave move considering the state of the technology -- the team had to build their own display for around $90,000 in 1960s money. "The display driver was a hunk of electronics 3 feet by 4 feet," Engelbart added, according to a new book called "Valley of Genius." He emphasized, however, that that the Stanford team wasn't just developing the systems, but using them for their own projects.
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