Tom Lyon ✅Feb 24
OTD 1982: The founding of #SunMicrosystems.
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 Feb 24

@aka_pugs

Those are freaking amazing monitors for 1982!!

Show threadfedops 💙💛Feb 24
@rl_dane those ROWS of keyboards on the tables! 🥵🥵🥵 What are they?
@aka_pugs
Show threadTom Lyon ✅Feb 24
@fedops @rl_dane There's a Sun-2 (33?) system chassis for each keyboard under the tables. Looks like a 2:1 ratio for CRTs. They're all systems running burn-in tests.
Show threadMichael EngelFeb 24
@aka_pugs @fedops @rl_dane I always wondered why the L-keys in the second column are more than twice as wide as the ones in the left column on a type 2 keyboard... on later Sun keyboards, both columns have the same width.
Show threadbitsavers.orgFeb 24
@me_ @aka_pugs @fedops @rl_dane
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 Feb 25

@bitsavers @me_ @aka_pugs @fedops

I wonder if there are any higher-res photos of it out there. I'm curious about the key arrangement. ;)

Show threadMichael EngelFeb 25

@rl_dane @bitsavers @aka_pugs @fedops Some close-up pictures can be found on digibarn (though their cert seems to be expired), this is a Xerox Star keyboard – and I wasn't aware that this was the inspiration for the Sun keyboards, good to know:

https://www.digibarn.com/friends/curbow/star/keyboard/index.html

Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 Feb 25

@me_ @bitsavers @aka_pugs @fedops

Whoa, that's wild. Thanks for the link!

So.. where's Control??? ;)

Show threadMichael EngelFeb 25
@rl_dane @bitsavers @aka_pugs @fedops Next to the also nonexistent cursor keys 🙂. The Star was a GUI-based system, I think the designers thought these keys (Escape is also missing) would not be necessary. Fun fact - the original Mac keyboard also omitted the control, cursor and escape keys. I wonder where they got this idea from? 😀
Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 

@me_ @bitsavers @aka_pugs @fedops

Oh, definitely a lot of unidirectional pollination from XEROX PARC to the Lisa and Mac teams 😄

(Although it's not the cheap rip-off that some people claim. #BillAtkinson did a heck of a lot of ingenious work to make a GUI useable at 5Mhz.)

Yes, the Mac didn't get arrow keys until the Mac Plus in 1986, in this horrid arrangement:

⬜⬜⬆️
⬅️➡️⬇️

You were expected to click where you wanted the insertion caret to go! XD

The Macintosh SE and II in 1987 brought the Control key, only used for DOS emulation. The option key was mapped to alt for (emulation) software that needed it.

With Mac OS X, they started using the Control key in addition to Command, Option, and Shift for keyboard shortcuts, a very bad idea.

Feb 25 at 2:40amWeb
Show threadbitsavers.orgFeb 25

@rl_dane @me_ @aka_pugs @fedops

"unidirectional pollination from XEROX PARC to the Lisa and Mac teams"

Hardly unidirectional.
A lot passed through Stanford and UCB
connections in both directions.
You see the Usual Suspects appear at lots of companies in the 80s and 90s
Engineering in the Valley was tribal.

Show threadR.L. Dane    🍵 Feb 25

@bitsavers @me_ @aka_pugs @fedops

You mean Lisa & Mac project ideas made their way back to PARC? Or just the people?