3 ms·

Engelbart did not envision the brain dead point and click thing apple introduced (with a single button[0]), or microsoft slightly improved version (with two but

Engelbart did not envision the brain dead point and click thing apple introduced (with a single button[0]), or microsoft slightly improved version (with two buttons[1]) and that we have made ever so slightly better since then [2] [3] [4]. What he envisioned was a 32 state machine (or 256 if you count all the non-keyboard buttons) which could be positioned anywhere on a screen: https://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2014/12/1450065_10154835434955223_600605115474172169_n1.jpg https://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2014/12/1450065_1... Something that would cause you to switch modes completely between typing and using it. A modal input mode for the gui, in the same way that vi is for the keyboard. The closest thing today is the razer keypad for gaming [5], and even that is not integrated into the OS a tenth as well as what Engelbart had and by default barely supports chording. [0] http://dynamis.no/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1984-Apple-Macintosh-Mouse.jpg http://dynamis.no/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1984-Apple-Maci... [1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Microsoft_Serial_Mouse_2.0A-8521.jpg/1280px-Microsoft_Serial_Mouse_2.0A-8521.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Mi... [2] https://www.technologyuk.net/computing/computer-systems/images/mouse08.jpg https://www.technologyuk.net/computing/computer-systems/imag... [3] https://files.pccasegear.com/images/1459844620-RZ-NAGA-CHROMA-th.jpg https://files.pccasegear.com/images/1459844620-RZ-NAGA-CHROM... [4] https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/11/oomouse-proto.jpg https://www.wired.com/images_blogs/gadgetlab/2009/11/oomouse... [5] https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/817GlmVDffL._SX425_.jpg https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/817GlmVDffL...

schpaencoder 8y ago
Well, are’nt you missing the point here? Conflating features with intent?
- zeth___ 8y ago
  No. The mouse introduced in 1984 was philosophically incompatible with Anglebarts mouse like device. Watch the mother of all demos and see the difference. Apple: https://youtu.be/S7AL7tkQ7d0?t=13m8s https://youtu.be/S7AL7tkQ7d0?t=13m8s Mother of all demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
DonHopkins 8y ago
I recently posted Doug Engelbart's advice to a young software developer, with some links to interesting videos about his work on the chord keyboard and glove, and also a link to a new product called "Tap" that seems to be inspired by his work (more links and interesting stuff about Doug Engelbart's work in the discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17121629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17121629 I just ran across a new device called "Tap", a wearable tap glove that functions as both a bluetooth keyboard and mouse! https://www.tapwithus.com/ https://www.tapwithus.com/ I haven't had any "hands on" experience with the Tap, but it looks very cool, like a modern version of Douglas Engelbart's and Valerie Landau's HandWriter glove! I asked Valerie Landau about it (wondering if it was her company), but she hadn't heard of it before. They have an iOS, Android and Unity3D SDK that appeared on github recently, so you can look at the code to see how it works: https://github.com/TapWithUs https://github.com/TapWithUs Valerie Landau interviewed by Martin Wasserman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ig8ecXlrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ig8ecXlrA Q: What did you find most impressive about him as a person? A: His humility. He was such a humble man, and his steadfastness of keeping his vision. Often times leaders like Doug, who many people call a prophet... In our society, we tend to think of the leaders as these sort of charismatic, ambitious people, and I think that Doug really broke that mold, in that he was a very humble, really shy person. Q: Do you have any last minute comments or observations about him to finish up. Or a good anecdote? A: I think -- I wanted to say one thing that Doug told me many years ago. And this is really for the software developers out there. Once, this was in the 90's. And I said, Doug, Doug, I'm just started to get involved with software development, and we have this really cool tool we're working on. Do you have any advice, about ... for a young software developer. He looked at me and said: "Yes. Make sure that whatever you do is very modular. Make everything as modular as possible. Because you know that some of your ideas are going to endure, and some are not. The problem is you don't know which one will, and which one won't. So you want to be able to separate the pieces so that those pieces can carry on and move forward."

schpaencoder 8y ago

Well, are’nt you missing the point here? Conflating features with intent?

zeth___ 8y ago
No. The mouse introduced in 1984 was philosophically incompatible with Anglebarts mouse like device. Watch the mother of all demos and see the difference. Apple: https://youtu.be/S7AL7tkQ7d0?t=13m8s https://youtu.be/S7AL7tkQ7d0?t=13m8s Mother of all demos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJDv-zdhzMY
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

DonHopkins 8y ago

I recently posted Doug Engelbart's advice to a young software developer, with some links to interesting videos about his work on the chord keyboard and glove, and also a link to a new product called "Tap" that seems to be inspired by his work (more links and interesting stuff about Doug Engelbart's work in the discussion): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17121629 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17121629 I just ran across a new device called "Tap", a wearable tap glove that functions as both a bluetooth keyboard and mouse! https://www.tapwithus.com/ https://www.tapwithus.com/ I haven't had any "hands on" experience with the Tap, but it looks very cool, like a modern version of Douglas Engelbart's and Valerie Landau's HandWriter glove! I asked Valerie Landau about it (wondering if it was her company), but she hadn't heard of it before. They have an iOS, Android and Unity3D SDK that appeared on github recently, so you can look at the code to see how it works: https://github.com/TapWithUs https://github.com/TapWithUs Valerie Landau interviewed by Martin Wasserman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ig8ecXlrA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ig8ecXlrA Q: What did you find most impressive about him as a person? A: His humility. He was such a humble man, and his steadfastness of keeping his vision. Often times leaders like Doug, who many people call a prophet... In our society, we tend to think of the leaders as these sort of charismatic, ambitious people, and I think that Doug really broke that mold, in that he was a very humble, really shy person. Q: Do you have any last minute comments or observations about him to finish up. Or a good anecdote? A: I think -- I wanted to say one thing that Doug told me many years ago. And this is really for the software developers out there. Once, this was in the 90's. And I said, Doug, Doug, I'm just started to get involved with software development, and we have this really cool tool we're working on. Do you have any advice, about ... for a young software developer. He looked at me and said: "Yes. Make sure that whatever you do is very modular. Make everything as modular as possible. Because you know that some of your ideas are going to endure, and some are not. The problem is you don't know which one will, and which one won't. So you want to be able to separate the pieces so that those pieces can carry on and move forward."