Doug Englebart - mouse!

[Rich Alderson]

From: jos
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2016 9:38 AM

> On 17.11.2016 17:18, Murray McCullough wrote:

>> Today in the age of pointer-graphics, ie., using a mouse, is a very
>> important day: Nov. 17, 1970, Doug Engelbart, of SRI, Menlo Park, CA,
>> invented the mouse or granted a patent for "X-Yposition indictator for
>> a grahics display." BTW he doesn't know who coined the word 'mouse'.

> Of course Telefunken had already a mouse, a.k.a. Rollkugel, in 1968.

Of course, the so-called Mother of All Demos was presented at FJCC on
9 December 1968, and included the mouse and the chord keyboard.  Unlike the
Telefunken mouse, the Engelbart mouse was not an inverted trackball.

I think arguing "priority" is a pointless exercise.  In the real world, the
mouse came to the fore with the Xerox Alto, where its use was inspired by
Engelbart, not Telefunken, and it spread to Lisp Machines, Lisa and Macintosh
computers, and beyond, from there.

                                                                Rich


Rich Alderson
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