In the 1970s a research centre in California invented, within a few years, a surprising share of the computing we use today: the graphical interface with windows and icons, the Ethernet local network, the laser printer, the text editor in which the screen shows what will be printed, and object-oriented programming in the modern sense. That centre was Xerox PARC, the Palo Alto Research Center founded in 1970 by the photocopier company.
Why Xerox
In the early 1970s Xerox dominated the photocopier market and was highly profitable. Its executives, however, feared that the office of the future would rely less and less on paper. So they founded a research laboratory to imagine that office, recruiting some of the best computer science researchers, many of whom had worked on ARPA-funded projects, including some former colleagues of Douglas Engelbart.
The Alto
In 1973 PARC built the Alto, designed mainly by Chuck Thacker. It was never sold as a commercial product, but many units were built and used inside Xerox and at some research institutions.
What was new about it
- A portrait bitmap display, shaped like a sheet of paper, in which every dot could be controlled individually. It could show characters in different typefaces, images and overlapping windows.
- A mouse, derived from Engelbart's.
- A network connection to other Altos and to printers.
- Personal use: each researcher had their own, at a time when computers were shared by many users.
The Alto was thus, to all intents and purposes, a personal computer with a graphical interface, almost ten years before machines of this kind reached the market.
Ethernet
To connect the Altos and printers, Bob Metcalfe, together with David Boggs, developed a local network at PARC called Ethernet. The memo in which Metcalfe described the idea dates from 1973.
The idea was inspired by an experimental radio network in Hawaii, ALOHAnet: all computers share the same medium, a coaxial cable, and transmit whenever they want. If two transmissions overlap, both stations notice, stop and try again after a random interval. Metcalfe later left Xerox and founded the company 3Com. Ethernet, with many advances in speed and cabling, is still the standard technology for wired networks today.
The laser printer
Gary Starkweather, a Xerox researcher, had the idea of using a laser beam to "draw" the page image onto the drum of a photocopier, instead of projecting the image of an original onto it. At PARC his idea was developed into a networked laser printer, able to print documents composed on the Altos with typographic quality.
The software: Smalltalk and Bravo
Smalltalk
The group led by Alan Kay, with Dan Ingalls, Adele Goldberg and others, developed Smalltalk, a programming language and environment based entirely on objects that communicate by sending each other messages. Kay had imagined the Dynabook, a personal portable computer for children and adults, and Smalltalk was meant to be its software.
Smalltalk introduced or popularised concepts such as overlapping windows, pop-up menus and an environment in which everything, including the system itself, could be explored and modified. Its influence on later object-oriented languages has been enormous.
Bravo
Butler Lampson and Charles Simonyi developed Bravo, a text editor in which the document appeared on screen with the typefaces and layout it would have on paper: the principle now known as WYSIWYG, "what you see is what you get". Simonyi later moved to Microsoft, where he led the development of Word.
Steve Jobs's visit
In 1979 Steve Jobs and a group of Apple engineers visited PARC, as part of an agreement that involved a Xerox investment in Apple. They saw the Alto and Smalltalk. The experience influenced Apple's work on two computers: the Lisa, released in 1983, and the Macintosh, unveiled in January 1984. Several PARC researchers later moved to Apple and other companies.
Why Xerox did not cash in
In 1981 Xerox launched a commercial product based on those ideas, the Xerox Star. It was technically advanced but very expensive and designed for complete office systems, not as a single machine. It was not a commercial success.
The reasons for this failure to exploit the inventions have been debated for decades: the distance between the Californian laboratory and headquarters, a company organised to sell photocopiers, prices that were too high, little interest in a market that was still uncertain. The lesson remains: inventing is not enough, you also have to know how to bring the invention to market.
In short
- Xerox PARC, founded in 1970, built the Alto in 1973, a personal computer with a bitmap display, mouse and network.
- PARC also gave birth to Ethernet, the networked laser printer, Smalltalk and the WYSIWYG editor Bravo.
- Steve Jobs's 1979 visit influenced Apple's Lisa and Macintosh computers.
- The 1981 Xerox Star was not a commercial success: PARC's ideas spread mainly through other companies.
