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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

#21

Post by jhbadger »

andrehacker wrote: post #6

Fascinating 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…

In the 1990s chorded keyboards were "popular" in regard to wearable computing. People like Steve Mann would give talks where he demonstrated how he could use his wearable computer (basically a laptop he strapped to himself with a clunky goggle-mounted display) that he controlled with a small chorded keyboard he operated with one hand. Obviously, a decade later with smartphones this looked pretty silly (if it didn't already in the 1990s) but some people really did think this was the future at the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mann_(inventor)

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#22

Post by dfc »

jntun wrote: post #17

I've recently been reading lots of books about 50/60/70s computing & especially the San Francisco element of it, so I've been watching Engelbart's demo myself on and off for the last few weeks. It really is amazing being "close" to all this time of history, even if the only way we can interact with it is over USB nowadays! Tiniest footnote correction but not only were the desk & offices designed by Herman Miller; the…

Can you share some of the titles about computing in the 50-70s?

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#23

Post by kens »

xkriva11 wrote: post #18
kens wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :-)

Crazy. This clearly demonstrates their focus on output, even at the expense of cost-effectiveness. Was TREE-META directly linked to META-II?

As far as I can tell, TREE-META and META II were unrelated compiler compilers.

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#24

Post by ecliptik »

dfc wrote: post #22
jntun wrote: post #17

I've recently been reading lots of books about 50/60/70s computing & especially the San Francisco element of it, so I've been watching Engelbart's demo myself on and off for the last few weeks. It really is amazing being "close" to all this time of history, even if the only way we can interact with it is over USB nowadays! Tiniest footnote correction but not only were the desk & offices designed by Herman Miller; the…

Can you share some of the titles about computing in the 50-70s?

I've been reading The Innovators[1], which includes early computing history, just finished the section on The Mother of all Demos yesterday coincidentally.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovators_(book)

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#27

Post by nine_k »

jhbadger wrote: post #21
andrehacker wrote: post #6

Fascinating 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…

In the 1990s chorded keyboards were "popular" in regard to wearable computing. People like Steve Mann would give talks where he demonstrated how he could use his wearable computer (basically a laptop he strapped to himself with a clunky goggle-mounted display) that he controlled with a small chorded keyboard he operated with one hand. Obviously, a decade later with smartphones this looked pretty silly (if it didn't a…

The killer feature of a chorded mechanical (not on-screen) keyboard for me is that one can use it without having to look at it. To literally touch-type (not necessarily text).

This is why such keyboards are used where this advantage is material, e.g. in jet fighters.

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#28

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

jhbadger wrote: post #21
andrehacker wrote: post #6

Fascinating 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…

In the 1990s chorded keyboards were "popular" in regard to wearable computing. People like Steve Mann would give talks where he demonstrated how he could use his wearable computer (basically a laptop he strapped to himself with a clunky goggle-mounted display) that he controlled with a small chorded keyboard he operated with one hand. Obviously, a decade later with smartphones this looked pretty silly (if it didn't a…

There's a 1990s Alan Alda video interviewing Thad Starner with these elements: https://youtu.be/X7DM1mT8r7c

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#29

Post by kragen »

kens wrote: post #10
xkriva11 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :-)

Plausibly someone else in Engelbart's lab, or a group of people, invented it. He always complained about people assigning him credit for the whole team's output.

Re: A USB Interface to the "Mother of All Demos" Keyset

#30

Post by kragen »

kens wrote: post #23
xkriva11 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy. This clearly demonstrates their focus on output, even at the expense of cost-effectiveness. Was TREE-META directly linked to META-II?

As far as I can tell, TREE-META and META II were unrelated compiler compilers.

I vaguely remember the published description of TREE-META crediting META-II, though I might be confabulating that. More broadly, I don't think any compiler-compiler is unrelated to META-II.
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