Do you, or have you ever, used a graphical user interface? If you use #Windows, #macOS, or any version of #Linux with a window manager or desktop environment, you can thank Dr. Clarence "Skip" Ellis.
Dr. Ellis worked at Xerox PARC, the research organization that developed the modern GUI. Icons, windows, the mouse, Ethernet-based networking, laser printing - all of these (and more) came out of PARC. Dr. Ellis led the team that created Officetalk, the first program to use icons and the Internet. He got his start at 15 years old showing a local tech company how to reuse punch cards, which was a game-changer back in 1958.
Oh, and he was also the first black man to earn a PhD in Computer Science.
Aside: if you're interested at all in the history of computer science, watch this video. Doug Engelbart gave this demo in 1968, long before personal computing. It debuted windows, graphics, video conferencing, word processing, real-time collaborative editing, and a buch of other things that still influence modern software design. Much of it influenced the projects at PARC.
@aires I'd also add "As We May Think" to the pot. It should remind us that it's not that much about the machine, but the purpose of the machine, and the vision that helps us build machines that fulfill that purpose.
@aires@blackmastodon
The first time I saw a mouse was way back in the day when I had an informal demo of the new Canadian Senate Debates production system from Xerox.
PS "back in the day" = so far back I can't remember exactly when.
@aires@blackmastodon
from his wikipedia:
"They had run out of unused punch cards, and needed to use the computer to process payroll by morning. During the emergency, Ellis was the only one who knew how to recycle the used punch cards. He lifted the hood of the computer and disabled the parity check circuitry. The used punch cards were recycled and the company was able to process the payroll"
@aires@blackmastodon@linuxfiend just for a moment, as I read the opening of that post, I thought this was the opening line of a letter regarding a class action lawsuit.
“Do you, or have you ever, used the graphical user interface? If you use #Windows, #macOS, or any version of #Linux with a window manager, or desktop environment, you may be entitled to compensation…”
@aires@blackmastodon
I used - I think, long ago - to install a GEM environment onto my old Dos System as it was so good with graphics. It was a GUI of sorts and a bit clunky, but it served me well. At the time I preferred 4dos to MSdos, but that disappeared when MS convinced the world - wrongly - it wouldn't run Windows.
I still have a collection of old .gem graphic files somewhere, though what I'll ever do with them is beyond me.
@airadam@MattFerrel@aires@blackmastodon
Amstrad with CPM on ROM ? The OS was gone everytime it was switched off, and if you hadn't saved your work to Amstrad disks that was gone too. I think I might also still have some of those.
Madness really - time for a clear out.
@hoare_spitall@MattFerrel@aires@blackmastodon No, a bit later than that - the 8086-based Amstrad PC 1512 - 512k of RAM, a couple of 5.25" floppy drives, and CGA graphics! It came with MS-DOS and GEM, and was the first exposure to the IBM PC world for most people I knew 🙂
@airadam@MattFerrel@aires@blackmastodon
My daughter always looks at me disbelievingly when I tell her my first ever PC (in the usual sense) had 4 MB RAM, a 103 MB HD, and the word Turbo in it's name. Where it was a 'luxury' was it also had a 'Backup' tape drive, (Yes, I stll have a tape, drive too maybe) which saved my life more than once, me having re-formatted the HD in error by trying to do too many command line jobs at once on more than 1 PC.
@drwex@aires@blackmastodon I started in 89, though I was there part time a bit while still in college. I left with Jeff and Michael Begeman to start CMSI to (try to) commercialize the gIBIS project
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