4 ms·

A "modern GUI, as we understand it" is one with a bitmapped screen, overlapping, non-modal windows and the desktop methaphor; why? because that's conceptually s

by Rochus 5y ago

A "modern GUI, as we understand it" is one with a bitmapped screen, overlapping, non-modal windows and the desktop methaphor; why? because that's conceptually still what we have today; the first machine where this was realized was the Alto at Xerox PARC; the first applications we would consider "modern GUI applications" were the Bravo WYSIWIG text editor (1974), the Gypsy document preparation system (the first existing DTP application, 1975) and the Smalltalk-76 environment (whereas overlapping windows and pop-up menus were already present in Smalltalk-74). Engelbart's and the other projects mentioned have undoubtedly made important contributions to the first graphical user interface; however, there were still various hurdles to overcome before the first "modern GUI" came into being.

gumby 5y ago
I don’t remember using any overlapping windows in the Alto environment though the display was bitmapped; Bravo, for example, was a “full screen” program. This wasn’t that odd; for example the CADR environment was also non-overlapping-window system. The iPhone was the modern reincarnation of this. The earliest “overlapping windows” system was, iirc, the smalltalk environment. I say “environment” because that back then you booted the machines (Alto and later the D machines) into a completely hermetic environment; Smalltalk, Interlisp-D, and Cedar/Mesa ran on the bare hardware (had their own networking stacks and drivers and even had their own microcode. There was no meaningful distinction between OS and application. My memory is a little fuzzy as this was quite a while ago and there was a lot of experimentation going on all over the place. I left PARC to go back to MIT in 1985.
- Rochus 5y ago
  Bravo was modal, Gypsy was non-modal, Smalltalk-74 onwards had multi-windows (including pop-up menus) and a metaphorical desktop. I assume you know these interesting presentations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z43y94Dfzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z43y94Dfzk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uknEhXyZgsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uknEhXyZgsg EDIT: see also e.g. https://computerhistory.org/blog/introducing-the-smalltalk-zoo-48-years-of-smalltalk-history-at-chm/ https://computerhistory.org/blog/introducing-the-smalltalk-z...

by Rochus 5y ago

gumby 5y ago

I don’t remember using any overlapping windows in the Alto environment though the display was bitmapped; Bravo, for example, was a “full screen” program. This wasn’t that odd; for example the CADR environment was also non-overlapping-window system. The iPhone was the modern reincarnation of this. The earliest “overlapping windows” system was, iirc, the smalltalk environment. I say “environment” because that back then you booted the machines (Alto and later the D machines) into a completely hermetic environment; Smalltalk, Interlisp-D, and Cedar/Mesa ran on the bare hardware (had their own networking stacks and drivers and even had their own microcode. There was no meaningful distinction between OS and application. My memory is a little fuzzy as this was quite a while ago and there was a lot of experimentation going on all over the place. I left PARC to go back to MIT in 1985.

Rochus 5y ago
Bravo was modal, Gypsy was non-modal, Smalltalk-74 onwards had multi-windows (including pop-up menus) and a metaphorical desktop. I assume you know these interesting presentations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z43y94Dfzk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Z43y94Dfzk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uknEhXyZgsg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uknEhXyZgsg EDIT: see also e.g. https://computerhistory.org/blog/introducing-the-smalltalk-zoo-48-years-of-smalltalk-history-at-chm/ https://computerhistory.org/blog/introducing-the-smalltalk-z...