A Non-Dogmatic History of the GUI

Zoxed writes "Jeremy Reimer provides an 8-page history of GUIs from the early 1930s to the present day. For example, from the conclusion: 'the truth of the story is that the GUI was developed by many different people over a long period of time. Saying that "Apple invented the GUI" or "Apple ripped off the idea from PARC" is overly simplistic, but saying that "Xerox invented the GUI" is equally so.'"

Comments

30s gui? now i know what those win32*.* files are.

[ultramarweeni]

I'd want to see 'Windows 32' up and running. I have these win32* files on my computer, I'm pretty sure they are reminiscents of that ancient 30's GUI. But on what computer hardware would that have been running on?

Love of the Mouse

[Janitha]

After reading this, I noticed one thing, seems like the idea has been stuck into the same idea this whole time, a simple 2d screen. Even vr googles use two 2d screens. Hopefully this will change more as the development of layered LCD's and other technologies start comming up. True 3d gui's are what I am waiting for now.

Re:Love of the Mouse

[Janitha]

The mouse subject was accidental, I was initially writing about the mouse when I realized this, and your are right a mouse wouldnt really work well.

Would be pretty nice to have a a simply point and touch in a real space, or simply just have the computer track eye movements, where you can just simply stare down a item you wish to click (or look at it and click) or a combination of touch and look.

Re:Love of the Mouse

[elgatozorbas]

Would be pretty nice to have a a simply point and touch in a real space

Nice, but probably also very tiring and difficult, without point of reference. Besides, what would all these 3D gui's be suitable for? 3D-modeling, mechanical CAD and the likes are obviously a good candidates. But apart from those? I never felt the need for either a 3D pointing device or display. Can you give some more examples of applications where such devices would have an added value?

Re:Love of the Mouse

[Peter Cooper]

I don't see the point. It's like demanding 3D paper or 3D TV. Paper and TV have been around significantly longer than GUIs, and I don't see anyone jumping to make those 3D. I saw some demos of some 3D TVs in the 90's, and while the idea had a certain 'cool' factor.. it seemed pointless.

Some things simply don't need to be more complicated than they are.. like adding buttons and extra text boxes onto Google search, or developing 3D paper.

Re:Love of the Mouse

[Anonymous Coward]

Besides, what would all these 3D gui's be suitable for? [..] I never felt the need for either a 3D pointing device or display. Can you give some more examples of applications where such devices would have an added value?

One thing that stuck in my head from my CS course in user interfaces was that (paraphrasing and condensing), "3D interfaces suck".

A major problem is that in a 2D interface, everything is visible (*); in a 3D interface, things can be 'hidden' behind other things, or even 'inside' a group of other things. At least you'll have to move around to see items; in the latter case, you'll actually have to move some items themselves aside to see other items.

Also; bear in mind that 3D interfaces will always be observed via two 2D projections (in your eyes, of course); this does *not* give anything approaching full knowledge of the 3D world from a given perspective. 2D on the other hand, does not have this problem.

On the course mentioned above, we were shown a video from the early 90s (this was circa 2001/02), with a virtual reality file management system. Navigation was via a hierarchy of logically-organized rooms in a building; files were finally found within boxes and folders.

Even then, it seemed vary dated in an "early 1990s virtual reality fetishising" way. In short, with the benefit of hindsight (*or* the ability to step back from the hype), it is obvious that the system was gimmicky and inefficient compared to the still-prevelant Mac/Windows-style folder navigation.

If technology was the limiting factor on 3D interfaces, I believe they'd have become commonplace by the second half of the 1990s. The fact that they aren't says more about the mechanics and usability of them than it does about display technology.

(*) Yeah. Things *can* be hidden by other things in most current GUIs. That's because they offer a very restricted level of 3D; namely layers of depth. They get away with this *because* it's limited.

Re:Love of the Mouse

[iamlucky13]

The Sphere desktop environment probably isn't quite what you're looking for, but I think it's neat. It's really more of a toy than a tool.

It's basically a program that replaces the standard desktop in XP with a spherical one. Your vision is at the center of the sphere, and you can look 360 deg, including up and down and place windows throughout the entire environment. You can also get some rather dizzying backgrounds for it.

Jef Raskin

[drivinghighway61]

Why, why, why, I invented Ars Technica!
Jef Raskin

GUI is over-rated

[xiando]

I know. I am a bit strange to think GUI is over-rated. And in very many cases, GUI does the best job. But CLI, text-based, is my preferred choice for a broad variety of applications. Text-based simply gets the job done quicker and more smoothly in many cases. Actually, unless I am working with something that actually requires graphics I prefer text-based..

Re:GUI is over-rated

[NanoGator]

"I know. I am a bit strange to think GUI is over-rated. And in very many cases, GUI does the best job. But CLI, text-based, is my preferred choice for a broad variety of applications. Text-based simply gets the job done quicker and more smoothly in many cases. Actually, unless I am working with something that actually requires graphics I prefer text-based.."

In your case, that's great. However, UI isn't just about quick efficient interfaces with the computer, it's also about making an interface that a new user can do something with. A text interface is the WORST interface to give somebody who's never used the system. If a GUI is designed well, you can tell a user what their goal is and they'll work it otu. With a text UI, the user will fly over to Google.

A Slashdot History of The GUI

[Anonymous Coward]

...As taken place in IRC

maoepdmz: apple invent gui, m$ stealz it
CHRIS: FAG STFU... XEROX MADE FIRST gui
maoepdmz: no
jay: microsoft made the gui truly successful
CHRIS: WTF
maoepdmz: STFU JAY FAGG0t
*** jay has been kicked (Suck Bill's cock)
CHRIS: MY DAD WORKS FOR APPLE, HE WAS THERE WHEN THEY MADE THE GUI FOR LISA AND STEVE JOBS CREATED THE MOUSE
maoepdmz: raelly?
CHRIS: YEAH
maoepdmz: so xerox are liars
CHRIS: HELLS YEAH THEY TOTALLY RIPPED IT FROM APPLES
maoepdmz: wow
gorbulon_neo_matrix21: u all fags, linux had the first gui in 1983... its called x windows system, idiots
CHRIS: NO, UNIX MADE THAT
maoepdmz: chris do u have unix
CHRIS: YES.. ITS L33t
maoepdmz: can i see screenshot?
CHRIS: NO

Apple bought it from PARC

[unassimilatible]

Apple ripped off the idea from PARC" is overly simplistic

How about, "Apple bought some ideas from Xerox for millions in cash and stock?"

This "Apple ripped off PARC" thing is nonsense. Just because the PARC group didn't like that their company sold the GUI rights doesn't make it a rip-off.

Bought and paid for.

Re:Apple bought it from PARC

[As Seen On VT]

Once we'd bought the GUI from PARC and started to develop it, loads of Xerox engineers started to jump ship and move to Apple - we were where the action was at. This was a hard time for most of us old timers, the PARC engineers were smelly, had facial hair and a tendency to work naked (a very confronting sight).

Acceptance of the new engineers did slowly grow though. I remember the turning point was when in a weekly meeting where we showed off the latest advances in ASCII porn - a vital part of Apple's plan to get computers into every bedroom - the PARC guys demoed a system of multiple 'windows' containing 4-bit Grayscale photorealistic porn!

It took a minute to get over the fact that they had used themselves as models, but Steve immediately saw the potential and that won us over they quickly.

Re:Apple bought it from PARC

[john82]

How about, "Apple bought some ideas from Xerox for millions in cash and stock?"

Bzzt. Still wrong.

The accurate statement would be that some things started at Xerox, some at Apple, and some occured simultaneously. One common thread is the late Jef Raskin. Raskin's Computer Science thesis (in 1967) took the position that computer interfaces should be graphical. Note that would be some 17 YEARS before the Mac appeared and some time before much of the work at Palo Alto.

As a professor at UCSD, Raskin was a visiting scholar at PARC where one would expect there was a bit of a mutual admiration society. Raskin and the folks at PARC were on the same wavelength. To be fair, one might wonder if the work at PARC may have owed something both to Raskin's thesis, and also to his occasional presence in the labs.

Following his move to Apple, Raskin apparently curtailed his visits to PARC. But it was Raskin who got Jobs interested in things UI and the work at PARC. For more on this, check out this article by Raskin.

And yet even this is simplified a good bit

[mcc]

They go directly from Smalltalk/PARC to Apple/LISA as if nothing happened in between. There actually were a decent number of GUI/windowing systems in the late 70s / early 80s, and a number of pre-X attempts at making a UNIX GUI, that time has totally forgotten. PERQ is the only one I can seem to find evidence of the existence of on Google offhand. If you can somehow find a copy of the book containing this history of GUIs written in 1986, it's rather fascinating...

Re:And yet even this is simplified a good bit

[sydb]

I used to have a PERQ II. They were made by ICL. It was a washing machine sized brown box; it was heavier than a washing machine though. The screen was a remarkably clear black & white portrait job. It ran Unix/X and it came with a copy of the Bell Labs manuals. I believe it came from a local university via a couple of friends.

The "mouse" was a "puck" - no ball it was used with a tablet (like a Wacom). The puck had a bit of transparent plastic at the top with cross-hairs - I presume so you could trace out a drawing. IIRC the buttons were different colours.

This was my first exposure to Unix and I loved it. My biggest regret, other than falling in love with the wrong woman, was taking this to the dump six years ago because I had no room for it. Now I have lots of room :-(

Oh shit

[boomgopher]

Don't show the Gnome devs this:

Alto File Manager

it might end up being the next version of Nautilus...

A link is worth a thousand pictures.

[Anonymous Coward]

GUI screenshots.
http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/interface s

Englebart's famous 1968 demo.
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html

Acorn Archimedes GUI
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~lrtc/computers/acorn_ro/ acorn/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A225785

Knowledge Navigator.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_navigator

Apple II GS
http://applemuseum.bott.org/sections/computers/IIg s.html

BeBox
http://www.bebox.nu/history.php

8-1/2: The Plan 9 Window system
http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/8%BD/8%BD.pdf

Genera
http://www.geocities.com/mparker762/toys.html

Video Interviews of Early Pioneers
http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/

GUI News
http://interfacelift.com/news/

ZUI's
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/piccolo/applications/in dex.shtml

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Doom in CLI

[Rallion]

> Forward 4 meters
> Turn left 7 degrees
> Fire

Re:Doom in CLI

[NanoGator]

"> Forward 4 meters
> Turn left 7 degrees
> Fire"

Doom in Linux:

> forward 4 meters
> error
> frwrd 4 mtrs
> error
> man doom
> error
> @#$#@$#@
> error
> man Doom ......

Re:Cool

[MichaelSmith]

I work for a company which sells air traffic control software. Lately I have been conducting training courses for software engineers working with our product.

I offered the opinion to my students that the radar display, implemented as computer graphics, is one of the best graphical user interface metaphors that you can find.

And there it is in this article:

During the war he had worked as a radar operator, so he was able to envision a display system built around cathode ray tubes where the user could build models of information graphically and jump around dynamically to whatever interested them.

Which makes me think that the CRT radar display where theta on the screen tracks the radar head revolution, and R represents the time for the echo to come back was the first true, working GUI.

Ever heard of Xanadu?

[rmallico]

http://xanadu.com.au/ted/ This guy is one of those folks who happened to have gone through the growing pains of the gui, hypertext world as it came to be (at least form its inception to its current state) i could say he is my crazy uncle but... 1. he is definately not crazy 2. he and my aunt just won't marry (but i still think of him as one helluva uncle) 3. he's pretty cool..

forgot this link... info from ibiblio...

[rmallico]

http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/nelson.html

Obsolete? Not keeping up with trends.

[SuperKendall]

And little has changed. The poor foundations of the original MacOS haunted Apple until they finally had to throw out MacOS and start over again with OS X. And what do they do? They base it on NeXT and Objective-C, a system that was pretty nice in the 1980's, but that has never been technologically cutting edge and is pretty much obsolete today as far as software technologies go.

Now Objective-C I'll grant is a bit of a mixed bag - primarily because of the lack of garbage collection, though autorelease pools are not too bad...

But the NeXT foundation and Objective-C together are actually very pertient to the world we live in today. The very heavy message-passing style of calls actually mirror the growing populartity of message passing in large enterprise systems, such as JMS.

Objective-C is actually where the industry should have gone instead of C++. It's easier to learn and use than C++ (I've done both) and might be a little behind Java or C#, but then again it's also not really been overhauled for a while.

The rapid degree of progress Apple has managed to make in the OS and with other programs is a good demonstrator for how efficient Objective-C can be.

Smalltalk was NOT the first OOP language

[The Lion of Comarre]

From the article:
Smalltalk was the world's first object-oriented programming language, where program code and data could be encapsulated into single units called objects that could then be reused by other programs without having to know the details of the object's implementation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_progr amming
History
...
The first object-oriented programming language was Simula 67, a language designed for making simulations, created by Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard of the Norwegian Computing Centre in Oslo. (Reportedly, the story is that they were working on ship simulations, and were confounded by the combinatorial explosion of how the different attributes from different ships could affect one another. The idea occurred to group the different types of ships into different classes of objects, each class of objects being responsible for defining its own data and behavior.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simula
Simula introduced the object-oriented programming paradigm and thus can be considered the first object-oriented programming language and a predecessor to Smalltalk, C++, Java, and all modern class-based object-oriented languages.

The real first GUIs

[Animats]

The first "intelligent graphical user interface" was probably General Railway Signal's NX system, in 1937. Interlocking systems, which prevented setting signals and switches in incorrect ways, predated NX, but NX was the first system that went beyond interlocking to actually helping the user do things. The dispatcher selected a train, and NX would light up all the potential routes the train could take, taking into account all conflicts. The dispatcher could then select a route, and NX would set and lock all the switches and signals for that route, releasing the resources as the train passed. This was the birth of "user-friendly" systems.

The first computerized system with a GUI was SAGE, the air defense system. This had CRTs and pointing devices in 1958. The pointing device was a light gun, and it really looked like a gun. This was appropriate, because, in the appropriate modes, pulling the trigger on the light gun could launch a surface to air missile.

There were a number of graphical CAD systems well before the PARC effort. Sutherland's Sketchpad, in 1963, was the first prototype. The General Motors DAC-1, in 1964, was the first commercial one.

The PLATO system, a very early computer-based instruction system, was demoed in 1960, but, like most of the other systems of that era, tied up a whole mainframe for one user. Plato was gradually scaled up - by 1967, there were special plasma flat panel displays (red only) and time-shared access.

So by the early 1970s, there were quite a few GUI projects that worked. They just cost too much.

Getting the cost down took a while. The early minicomputer-based workstations like the Alto were in the $25-50K range. The UNIX workstations of the early 1980s (Sun, Apollo, PERQ) were in that price range. The original Apple Lisa, a good but expensive machine, cost $10K. The original cost-reduced Macintosh was around $2500, and, lacking a hard drive, it really wasn't very useful. Not until the Macintosh was built up to a reasonable hardware level (512K and a hard drive) could you really get any work done with it.

By then, in the late 1980s, the hardware was finally ready. You could get a megabyte of memory, a bit-mapped display, a reasonable CPU, and a hard drive in a desktop box for under $3K. At which point Microsoft moved into the field.

Regions...the core of a fast GUI

[mveloso]

One incredibly important tidbit is buried in the article: regions.

"One critical advance from the Lisa team came from an Apple engineer who was not a former PARC employee, but had seen the demonstration of Smalltalk. He thought he had witnessed the Alto's ability to redraw portions of obscured windows when a topmost window was moved: this was called "regions". In fact, the Alto did not have this ability, but merely redrew the entire window when the user selected it. Despite the difficulty of this task, regions were implemented in the Lisa architecture and remain in GUIs to this day."

That man was Bill Atkinson, and he came up with region drawing code that Apple patented. It's the reason that Apple's GUI was brutally faster than any other GUI out there. What was great about it was that it not only did rectangular regions, it was able to handle arbitrarily complex regions.

It's worth it to go over the patent, if you get the chance. It just goes to show that a misunderstanding can have incredibly positive repurcussions.

Have you used the tools?

[SuperKendall]

If you give, say, the iTunes design to a Cocoa programmer and a programmer using, say, Java/Eclipse or VisualBasic programmer, you'll probably find that the Cocoa programmer will take longer to implement it.

Actually, having used the tools for all those languages I do not think that's an accurate statement. I've built a lot of Java GUI apps. just a few visual studio ones, and only done a bit of XCode so far - but I really feel like once up to speed XCode is probably the best GUI design app around. Again the message passing nature of the language underneath really helps since you're basically building a stub GUI that you then flesh out the code behind.

The thing that makes Apple apps really good is because they don't have to go to heroics to design nice interfaces, the tools lend themselves to easy and rapid GUI refinement.