How best to accommodate the #Xerox 6085 display resolution of 1152x861 on an 8" 1024x768 display for my small scale #XeroxStar replica? Scaling down looks lousy (also up to 1280x1024).

I’m most interested in the XDE, so my plan is to clip to 1024x768 and set my user.cm to arrange my windows within the visible space. I added code so pressing a hotkey brings up scrollbars, tools, & status.

I can also run the #GlobalView engine which lets me set the screen size to anything.

#retrocomputing #Tajo

As I start to think about a #Xerox 8010 (Star) small-scale replica, I remembered I have a picture of my display from 1983 (actually a picture of a framed screenshot). It has most of my standard running programs and part of my user.cm!

I'll give 100, no 500, internet points to anyone who can identify the “icon” highlighted in red in the photo. It's a hack I wrote four decades ago as part of the Pilot Kernel team.

#retrocomputing #xeroxstar #dandelion

This is the Dwarf emulator running the #Xerox Development Environment (#XDE) on a #raspberrypi. It's an 8" display at 1024x768. I made minor mods to display full screen with emulator controls hidden until needed.

Unlike DarkStar, Dwarf is a Mesa PrincOps emulator, not a generic microcode emulator. That makes it less flexible, but a lot faster. This is the right tradeoff for me since I spent my Xerox life in the Mesa world & the additional speed is handy when running #XeroxStar.

#retrocomputing

Let’s have a look at the very first commercial computer with a graphical user interface, called Xerox Star, which was the successor of the Xerox Alto! What did its marvelous GUI look like? Was it ground-breaking and easy to use as we’d expect? Or, perhaps, was it too ahead of its time? Well then, let’s find out!

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https://blisscast.wordpress.com/2024/04/16/xerox-star-daybreak-gui-wonderland-2

#xerox #xeroxstar #vintagecomputer #gui #retrocomputer

This 1989 retrospective of Xerox Star written by its designers and developers is fascinating. It explains the design decisions, tells the history of the system, and candidly admits the technological and business mistakes.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2953879_The_Xerox_Star_A_Retrospective

#xeroxstar #gui #retrocomputing

A bit more on the #XeroxAlto 50th anniversary. I found this photo of my copy of Alto User's Handbook from 1979 and the little commemorative block they gave to all of us when #XeroxStar 1.0 shipped.

You can find a scanned copy of the handbook here: http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/alto/Alto_Users_Handbook_Sep79.pdf

#retrocomputing

Le #XeroxStar, de la société de Palo Alto Xerox, sorti en 1981 et le premier ordinateur grand public, reprenant les principe du Xerox Alto, comportant une interface graphique, une #souris (à 2 boutons). Elle comporte de plus une interface #ethernet !! Le #Mac ne sort que quelques années après, sa souris n’a qu’un bouton (limites dans les menus contextuels), l’interface est moins aboutie et il n’y a pas d’interface réseau.

https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1982-04/1982_04_BYTE_07-04_Human_Factors_Engineering#page/n243/mode/2up