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

[photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)]

Thanks for this, Herb. Fascinating story, some of which I knew already, but 
you have made it complete.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/

YNWA









On Feb 3, 2013, at 11:52 PM, Herbert Kanner wrote:

> 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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