firsts (guis)

Regarding the first GUI: It would seem that Douglas Englebart's work at the "Augmentation Research Center" (ARC) of the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park was the first GUI and was demonstrated at the Fall 1968 Joint Computer Conference in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium by Englebart. The computer used was the one at ARC (model unknown?) and was microwave linked to the display in the Auditorium. Input devices included a keyboard, a 3 button mouse (invented 4 years earlier by Englebart), and a chord keyset - described as an input device that resembled a five key segment cut from a piano keyboard. Alan Kay was in attendance at that show and drew inspiration for his later work at Xerox PARC on SmallTalk and the Xerox Alto (released in 1973, 2000 were made and it is credited as "a contender for the title of world's first personal computer"). The reference with all these claims is none other than the "Input/Ouput" volume of the Time-Life "Understanding Computers" series (c) 1986 (L.O.C. QA76.1486 1986 004 85-28832; ISBN: 0-8094-5666-4 or 0-8094-5666-2 (library binding)). There is a picture of Englebart conducting "a reprise" of his Joint Computer Conference show on page 65. Peter Prymmer