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Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

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Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#51

Post by maratd »

chmod775 wrote: post #42
wickedchicken wrote: post #24

God , here we go again. Yet another example of companies stealing from Apple. This is clearly similar enough to the Macintosh (1984) that I'm surprised Apple didn't sue the hell out of AT&T. They certainly sued the hell out of Microsoft[1], so AT&T must have been lucky. Around the same time, Myron Krueger had the gall to demonstrate pinch-to-zoom[2], nearly 23 years before Apple patented it. So many people piggy-back…

I'm surprised AT&T didn't sue the hell out of apple because BLIT is clearly older than the Macintosh. BLIT is actually from 1982 as is shown in the video at 3:50 and in the copyright notice some seconds later. The wikipedia article also claims it's 1882.

He was being sarcastic... unless you're being sarcastic too? Newsflash. Sarcasm on the Internet does not work unless you use tags!

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#53

Post by simonh »

wickedchicken wrote: post #24

God , here we go again. Yet another example of companies stealing from Apple. This is clearly similar enough to the Macintosh (1984) that I'm surprised Apple didn't sue the hell out of AT&T. They certainly sued the hell out of Microsoft[1], so AT&T must have been lucky. Around the same time, Myron Krueger had the gall to demonstrate pinch-to-zoom[2], nearly 23 years before Apple patented it. So many people piggy-back…

Development of the Lisa started in 1978 and it was released in 1983. The Blit was started in 1981 and released as the 5620 in 1984, the same year as the Mac.

So unfortunately the facts render your sarcasm rather hollow.

Anyway, the Blit doesn't infringe on Apple as it doesn't include any of the things Apple did genuinely develop independently - like pull-down menus, resizable and moveable windows, overlapping windows, directly manipulatable file and document names, desk accessories, control panels, internationalisation, multiple views of the file system and drag and drop file manipulation. So in comparison to Apple tech of the time it's so primitive it wouldn't be worth it anyway.

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#54

Post by mahcuz »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20
joezydeco wrote: post #19

Ah, the AT&T 3B2. I learned heavy-duty assembly language programming on the WE32000, that was a really nice processor. Shame it never took off in the era of 80286 and 68000...

Perhaps time has fogged your memory :-) That was a horrible processor. :-)

:-)

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#55

Post by re_todd »

majke wrote: post #4

Rob Pike again. Over the years he's done pretty much _everything_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Pike

That's a smart dude, I'm surprised I haven't heard of him earlier. But I can't help but think he would seem twice as brilliant if he had a neckbeard :)

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#56

Post by wtracy »

mhd wrote: post #6

Ah, early GUIs. For comparison, take a look at Xerox' Cedar and Smalltalk, or Wirth's Lillith and Oberon, all from pretty much the same era. The Lilith systems are often overlooked. They predate the Blit, are programmed in Modula-2, translated to bytecode. Oberon is a bit more well-known, but still not as much as both the language and the OS deserve. Lilith demo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob0lznzkykc Some…

I got a smile out of the Cedar demo talking about documents as user interfaces. Arguably the concept of the web as a user interface pre-dates the web!

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#57

Post by Aykroyd »

jff wrote: post #45
Aykroyd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that line about playing asteroids. I was also entertained by the line towards the end of video: "I've always been able to think about multiple things at once but the terminal held me back." It seems like we all very much doubt that was ever true now.

If in your last line you mean "Everyone works in terminal emulators all the time", that's not what he was going for. The intent of the statement you quote was that previous terminal hardware, such as the VT-100, gives you access to exactly one program at a time. GNU Screen was not to be invented until 1987, and I have not heard of any earlier terminal multiplexer.

Sorry that was unclear. I was referring to the modern backlash against multitasking. Specifically, I'm sure that I can't think productively about more than one thing at a time.

There's no question that this system was a technological achievement though and that having access to more than one running program at a time is a good thing.

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#58

Post by tedunangst »

chmod775 wrote: post #42
wickedchicken wrote: post #24

God , here we go again. Yet another example of companies stealing from Apple. This is clearly similar enough to the Macintosh (1984) that I'm surprised Apple didn't sue the hell out of AT&T. They certainly sued the hell out of Microsoft[1], so AT&T must have been lucky. Around the same time, Myron Krueger had the gall to demonstrate pinch-to-zoom[2], nearly 23 years before Apple patented it. So many people piggy-back…

I'm surprised AT&T didn't sue the hell out of apple because BLIT is clearly older than the Macintosh. BLIT is actually from 1982 as is shown in the video at 3:50 and in the copyright notice some seconds later. The wikipedia article also claims it's 1882.

AT&T actually did go around suing various graphics vendors.

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#59

Post by stox »

Blit (68K ) ==> DMD5620 ( WE32K ) ==> 630MTG (68K) == 730MTG (68K)

The 630 was also know as the "Son of a Blit"

Piece of humor. The graphics workstation for Plan9 was a 68020 board put into a 630/730MTG chassis, but with a DMD5620 keyboard. People would walk up to it and ask if it was 630. To which, the response was, it's not. It was later simply named, the Gnot.

Re: Blit: a multitasking, windowed Unix GUI from 1982

#60

Post by stox »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #20
joezydeco wrote: post #19

Ah, the AT&T 3B2. I learned heavy-duty assembly language programming on the WE32000, that was a really nice processor. Shame it never took off in the era of 80286 and 68000...

Perhaps time has fogged your memory :-) That was a horrible processor. :-)

It was, especially, the jump and slide problem. The WE32100 and WE32200 rocked.
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