I'm reminded of Alan Kay talking in 1987[1] about GRAIL (Graphical Input Language) on the RAND Tablet, which he calls the first "data tablet": "When I saw that

I'm reminded of Alan Kay talking in 1987[1] about GRAIL (Graphical Input Language) on the RAND Tablet, which he calls the first "data tablet": "When I saw that, and used it for half an hour in 1968, I felt like I was sticking my hands right through the display and actually touching the information structures directly. This was the first system I'd ever used, and practically the only one since, that I've called truly intimate. It was this degree of intimacy that was so important in a user interface." Interestingly he mentions that one of the reasons for the creation of the RAND Tablet was that their economists and other computer users complained that they couldn't type. [1] http://www.archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 http://www.archive.org/details/AlanKeyD1987 Alan Kay: Doing with Images Makes Symbols GRAIL part starts at about 23:40