A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
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Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#2Author here if there are any questions...
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#3It’s amazing to me not only how much things haven’t changed (many still use mouse, joystick, keyboard) but how much things have changed.
A dedicated keyset for frequent functions like this is certainly cool, and there was a time where it was cool to have num pad and function keys, but then most users started to use modifier keys (shift, ctrl, option, later added cmd) on their keyboards. We started with joysticks, then mice, then some trackballs, haptic joystick, light pen, touchpad, then haptic touch screen. And we have some voice interaction, then some immersive VR and augmented reality, then interaction with AI that can hear and see things, and we have some movement in brain interfacing over the years.
What is next?
(I apologize for leaving many things out and getting them in the wrong order. Just going on memory.)
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#4It’s amazing to me not only how much things haven’t changed (many still use mouse, joystick, keyboard) but how much things have changed. A dedicated keyset for frequent functions like this is certainly cool, and there was a time where it was cool to have num pad and function keys, but then most users started to use modifier keys (shift, ctrl, option, later added cmd) on their keyboards. We started with joysticks, the…
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Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#5[deleted]
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#6Fascinating read as always Ken.
It seems that the concept of a “Chorded Keyboard” from Douglas then spawned several relatively successful successors later on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard
Growing up in the Netherlands in the 80s it was hard to not be aware of the “Velotype”: it had more keys and supposedly made it easier to learn the “chords”.
Your reference to the book Nerds 2.0.1 is great, the book is a companion to the excelent PBS 3-part series from 1998
https://archive.org/details/movies?tab=collection&query=Nerd...
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#7Fascinating read as always Ken. It seems that the concept of a “Chorded Keyboard” from Douglas then spawned several relatively successful successors later on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard Growing up in the Netherlands in the 80s it was hard to not be aware of the “Velotype”: it had more keys and supposedly made it easier to learn the “chords”. Your reference to the book Nerds 2.0.1 is great, the boo…
Back in the mid '80s our school was given a small number of Microwriter chorded keyboards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwriter) for our BBC Micro lab. Even as 12 year olds we were already crazy good touch-typists, so the Microwriter felt very clunky and unintuitive to us. I don't know what the lesson is from that. Just because it seems a good idea doesn't mean that it is. Or typewriter-style keyboards have survived over a century and a half for a reason.
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#8Author here if there are any questions...
Thank you for this, wonderful break down of some amazing history. I have watched that demo many many times in my pursuit of human computer interface thinking.
I often wondered what happened to this piece of hardware… I still hold a deep belief that our current input methods are flawed(as amazing as they are) and we are in need of another leap forward.
Anyway great read - thank you again.
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#9Author here if there are any questions...
How did Engelbart render black text on a white background during his 1968 Demo, considering that the display technology at the time was based on vector CRTs, which typically produced glowing light rather than dark areas?
Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset
#10Author here if there are any questions...
How did Engelbart render black text on a white background during his 1968 Demo, considering that the display technology at the time was based on vector CRTs, which typically produced glowing light rather than dark areas?
Output was displayed on 5" CRTs. High-resolution TV cameras (875-line) transmitted the CRT output to 17" monitors at each work station. By flipping a switch, the video could be inverted, so you could get either black lines on a light background or white lines on a black background. In other words, Engelbart invented dark mode :-)