[Leica] Another from the Museum: the Xerox Alto Computer

[jhnichols at lighttube.net (Jim Nichols)]

Hi Herb,

Thanks for the continuing history lessons.  My secretary received one of the 
first Xerox Star systems purchased and installed by the USAF at our center. 
They were all interconnected by Ethernet cables, and provided a great 
improvement in moving information around the center.  I think it was an 
outgrowth of the Alto.

Jim Nichols
Tullahoma, TN USA
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herbert Kanner" <kanner at acm.org>
To: "Leica Users Group" <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2013 4:52 PM
Subject: [Leica] Another from the Museum: the Xerox Alto Computer


> This bit of computer history is so rich that, even with many details 
> glossed over, it may be too long for some readers.
>
> The story begins with the Xerox Corporation. The company was started in 
> 1909 with the name The Haloid Photographic Co. They made photographic 
> paper. The name in time got shortened to Haloid Xerox. Eventually, they 
> developed commercially what they renamed xerography, became a successful 
> copier company, dropped their photographic endeavors and the name 
> "Haloid".
>
> Their research laboratory was in New York State. Copiers were their total 
> stock in trade, but as computers became more prevalent, they had a vague 
> idea, without explicit plans, that they should pay some attention to 
> computers. They bought a computer company, Scientific Data Systems (SDS) 
> pf Santa Monica, CA, changed its name to Xerox Data Systems (XDS) and 
> proceeded to run it into the ground.
>
> Around 1970, again with the vague idea that they should investigate 
> various technical and scientific fields including computer science, they 
> found the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). The Palo Alto location, I was 
> told in an early attempt at a job interview, was chosen to be as far as 
> possible from corporate headquarters and far from XDS. The proximity of 
> Stanford University was also a serious factor.
>
> The Alto was an attempt to prototype a computer for business use. While 
> prohibitively expensive, the idea was that costs were dropping rapidly, 
> and that in five to ten years, it was predicted, such a computer would be 
> affordable to business. About two thousand of them were built, scattered 
> around PARC and networked by ethernet cable. Ethernet was invented at 
> PARC; so was the laser printer. Did Xerox make a fortune out of any of 
> this? One commentator coined the sentence: "Xerox had the ability to 
> snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!"
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/herbk1/L1002809.jpg.html
>
> What you are seeing is not the computer itself. The computer is a large 
> box under the table, in a position where it could not possibly be shot. 
> You will immediately notice the unusual shape of the screen.  So what do 
> you do in business? You shuffle sheets of paper. What is the shape of a 
> sheet of paper? Nuff said. At the upper left of the picture, you will see 
> an early ethernet cable. On the right is a mouse. This the first public 
> appearance of one since it was invented by Doug Engelbart in 1963 and 
> publicly demonstrated in 1969.
>
> On the left is a second invention of Doug's: a five key keyboard on which 
> one can play chords. The idea was that with the left hand on it and the 
> right hand on the mouse, you can do many operations without having to let 
> go of the mouse until you are seriously entering text. I have fun when 
> giving tours at the Computer History Museum by asking any geeks on the 
> tour how many different chords can be played with five fingers. I usually 
> draw a blank. Some how the concept of chords is a mental block. If I had 
> asked them: "What is the largest number you can write with five binary 
> digits," I'm sure they would have snapped out: 31.
>
> In 1979, related to the fact that Xerox had invented serious money in 
> Apple, Steve Jobs got to see a demonstration of the Alto. The people at 
> PARC did not want to show him what they considered to be the crown jewels, 
> and on that day he didn't see anything he had not seen before. He was 
> pissed off, made it known to Xerox headquarters, and a second visit was 
> arranged at which the lab people were ordered to show him everything.
>
> At this point, we get into the realm of legend. There are two versions: 
> the first, supported by some knowledgeable computer experts, is that Apple 
> had been working for some time on the sort of graphical user interface 
> that we know today on Windows and Macintosh, had encountered serious 
> problems, and seeing that the problems had been solved at Xerox, proceeded 
> to work harder and do the same at Apple. The second was that seeing this 
> interface demonstrated at Xerox, Steve Jobs was stunned, and on returning 
> to Apple caused the group working on the Lisa computer to go back to 
> square one and redo hardware and software to provide that kind of 
> interface. The Lisa, an unsuccessful product because of high price and 
> poor performance, was followed in two years by the Macintosh.
>
> Having read the Steve Jobs biography, I'm inclined to go with the second 
> version, the one in the biography. In the first place, the biographer 
> seems to have been very meticulous and talked to a great many people. In 
> the second place, it makes Steve Jobs seems a bit less brilliant.
>
>
> Herbert Kanner
> kanner at acm.org
> 650-326-8204
>
> Question authority and the authorities will question you.
>
>
>
>
>
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