It is widely known that the #XeroxAlto pioneered many aspects of modern computing, or at least integrated them into the #userInterface we still use today.

But it also featured the first #modalEditor with #Bravo (although they eventually replaced it with the modeless #BravoX).

https://oldbytes.space/@amoroso/115422978986104778

#modalEditing #vi #vim #BillJoy #unix #posix #xerox #alto #gui #editor

Paolo Amoroso (@amoroso@oldbytes.space)

How modal editing and `vi` originated and why this is a unique design choice tied to specific circumstances. https://buttondown.com/hillelwayne/archive/modal-editing-is-a-weird-historical-contingency #vi #editor

OldBytes Space - Mastodon
The History of Themeable User Interfaces

A full-ish history of user interfaces that can be themed to meet the opportunities and constraints of the time

Brad Frost
@0x47df @flacs same designers als the #XeroxAlto and aimed at #print and #legal professionals:with a 9:16 screen!
@puniko @cinnamon also makes sense given text editing was the first mainstream application that non-technical folks got.introduced, and #Xerox did also put a portrait-oriented widescreen on the #XeroxAlto #DesktopPublishing #workstation...
The Xerox Alto, Smalltalk, and rewriting a running GUI

Be sure to read the comment from Alan Kay at the bottom of the article! We succeeded in running the Smalltalk-76 language on our vintag...

Using the mouse-driven graphical user interface of a personal computer to write a document with a WYSIWYG word processor, check new messages with an email client, and create an organization chart with a drawing program. Just an ordinary day at Xerox PARC in 1978. When email spam was apparently already a thing.

The demo features the Alto workstation and the Bravo word processor. You can hear the noise of the hard disk.

https://archive.org/details/Xerox_Palo_Alto_Demo_August_1978

#retrocomputing #Xerox #XeroxAlto

Bob Taylor, Barbara Baird: Xerox Alto Demonstration - August 1978 : Bob Taylor; Barbara Baird : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Xerox Alto Demo Demonstration, August 1978Document composition and processingMessage communicationGraphical illustrationPresented by Bob Taylor and Barbara...

Internet Archive

Why am I so fascinated by such old machines and their presentation? 😍

#RetroComputing #RetroComputer #XeroxAlto #Smalltalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqKyHEJe9_w

Yesterday's Computer of Tomorrow: The Xerox Alto │Smalltalk-76 Demo

YouTube

How the developers of Bravo at Xerox PARC overcame the limitations of Alto to design the first WYSIWYG editor and make it run efficiently.

http://billverplank.com/CiiD/Bravo-Newman.pdf

#XeroxAlto #XeroxPARC #retrocomputing

Xerox sin duda, marcó la pauta. De hecho utilizaron esta tecnología no comercial para crear el procesador de documentos Xerox 8010 también conocido como "Xerox Star".
Todo esto movió a Steve Jobs cuando visitó PARC para crear un sistema aún más robusto donde agrego menús desplegables, arrastrar y soltar, barras de menú y el "Copy+Paste" moderno del cual hablaremos posteriormente
📸: ToastyTech
#retrocomputingmx #historiadelgui #xeroxalto

Sin duda el Xerox Alto era un ordenador muy avanzado para la época, que se usaba para la investigación sobre la interacción humano-tecnológica y el uso de ordenadores.
Inclusive había entornos de programación para esta máquina, como el BCPL y MESA, lenguaje de bajo nivel que podían usar el microcódigo del CPU.
Sin olvidar el SmallTalk y Lisp de alto nivel, interactivos y orientado a objetos.

#retrocomputingmx #historiadelgui #xeroxalto