> LISA "FINDER" INFO
>
> PART 7 OF 7
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Frank Ludolph's comments about the Lisa user interface that he gave at a
> demonstration of the Xerox Star in 1998 are:
>
> "Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 12:00:20 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Frank Ludolph <frank.ludolph_at_email.domain.hidden>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <exxerox_at_email.domain.hidden>
> Subject: Re: The final live demonstration of the Xerox 'Star' computer
>
> Jeff mentioned the CHI joint Star/Lisa demo. As one of the presenters it
> was a
> blast to do. Most of you have experienced 'Oh, I should have said...'
> Jeff's
> comments give me the chance to say it, though to a differenct audience.
> :-)
>
> > From: jeffjohnson_at_email.domain.hidden
> > ...
> > 2. When Frank Ludolph was giving the formal Lisa demo, he edited a
> graphics
> > file. When he tried to close the file, a dialog box appeared, reading
> "Do
> > you want to replace the document that you last edited 7 years ago?" The
> > audience got a laugh out of this, but I think it was quite noteworthy
> for
> > two reasons, one of which Frank mentioned and one of which he didn't.
> > Frank said that the document had in fact been last edited 10 years ago,
> but
> > Lisa's clock stopped advancing in 1995. In other words, Lisa didn't
> have a
> > year-2000 problem; it had a 1995 problem. What Frank didn't point out
> was
> > that the dialog box gave the elapsed time in years. Most systems in
> this
> > situation would have given a specific last-edit date, or displayed the
> > elapsed time as "2555 days". Whoever programmed that dialog box thought
> to
> > convert very-long time intervals into years. What foresight!
>
> Thanks to Larry Tesler. I alway thought it was a great feature.
>
> > 3. During the Lisa demo, Frank Ludolph at one point duplicated a file
> that
> > he meant to move. He was quick to point out that Lisa (and Mac) use the
> > same UI for moving and copying documents, and that this was sometimes a
> > problem for users, but usually did what users want.
>
> Actually, Mac and Lisa used the same drag-and-drop action, but Mac does a
> copy when the destination is a different disk while Lisa always did a
> move.
> The Mac get beat-up for being inconsistent, but Lisa's consistency lead to
>
> difficult to correct errors when an item was dragged from hard disk to
> diskette - the item was removed from the hard disk and the diskette may
> have
> been physically taken to another location.
>
> > ... Behind me in the
> > audience, a fellow suddenly said: "Hey! Those two files have the same
> > name!" No one else picked up on this, so I told him that in both Lisa
> and
> > Star, filenames have no particular significance to the O.S. and users
> are
> > free to give multiple files the same name if they want to. He found
> that
> > hard to swallow.
>
> I considered mentioning this but cut it from the demo as time was tight.
> Near the end of the demo I mentioned that the object icons (docs, folders,
>
> tools, etc.) were *not* diskfiles and behind an icon could be 0-n
> diskfiles.
> (The unique naming being a requirment of the file directory.) This enabled
> the
> Lisa to keep two versions of an edited document, 'saved' and 'edits'. The
> Mac
> ignored this but NeXT picked it up for their applications and, at 3.0, for
>
> other objects as well. This both reduces the number of superflous icons
> and
> prevents accidental corruption of the object (move/copy/delete). Removing
> the
> 1-1 icon-to-diskfile relationship is one that I'd really like Apple and
> Microsoft do.
>
> > 4. During the question-answer period, one audience member said: "Seeing
> > these two amazing systems makes me wonder what we've been *doing* for
> the
> > past 15 years. We have color now, what else?" Neither the Star
> demoers
> > nor the Lisa demoers gave him much of an answer. In my opinion, what
> "we"
> > have done over the past 15 years is put these kinds of UIs on the vast
> > majority of the huge number of PCs that are in daily use (the "we" being
> > mostly Microsoft and Apple, with a little help from unix system
> vendors).
> > The audience member who raised the question was of course thinking more
> of
> > innovation than of proliferation, but in my view the proliferation is a
> > more useful and tangible advance than further innovation would have
> been.
>
> Having flubbed the answer then, I would have answered that we have spent
> the time, with diminishing returns, on evolving the UI mechanisms.
> Unfortunately we have been unable to prune off the earlier mechanisms and
> the
> result is some rather baroque UIs. I believe that we could build a very
> good
> bitmap/mouse UI now if we could do it from the ground up without having to
>
> include everyone's favorite feature.
>
> Jeff's comment about proliferation addresses a flubbed answer to a comment
>
> from Dave Ungar who said that "these system's really cared about users in
> a
> way that today's systems don't seem to." (Or words to that effect.) In
> those
> days we were trying to convince people to use computers, that they *could*
> use
> computers, in an office environment. Now days, not being able to use a
> computer is like not having a driver's license in Los Angeles - you can't
> get
> by without it. Today users are over a barrel. They have to invest the
> effort
> to learn how to use the machine no matter how difficult - it's part of the
> job
> requirement. And in the end useability issues rank in priority no higher
> than
> 3rd behind features and performance. Just read all the reviews...
>
> When I look back at the technical achievements of Star, well, it is just
> awesome! It took about 15 years for desktop products to begin to match the
>
> overall feature set.
>
> Frank"
>
> For additional Lisa info, see the following web site which has LOTS of
> stuff (much of which is from David Craig it seems):
>
> http://members.tripod.com/jupiterii/lisacontent/info_lisa.html
>
> This site contains the following information:
>
> * Lisa Hardware Guide 1981
> * Introduction to the Lisa
> * Lisa Hardware Guide 1983
> * Orphan Support Column From Macazine
> * Lisa Schematics
> * Lisa Parallel Port Card Docs
> * Lisa Product Introduction Plan
> * Profile Hard Drive Docs.
> * Lisa Marketing Requirements Document
> * Lisa Profile Owners Guide
> * Lisa Tool Deserialization Paper
> * Semaphore Signal Magazine
> * Lisa Office System
> * Lisa File Label Reader Utility by DTC
> * LisaCalc Manual
> * LisaTerminal Manual
> * Lisa HW Unit Disassembly
> * LisaDraw Manual
> * Lisa System Low Level Driver Disassembly
> * LisaWrite Manual
> * LisaGraph Manual
> * Lisa OS Reference (1982)
> * LisaList Manual
> * Lisa OS Guide (1982)
> * LisaProject Manual
> * Lisa QuickDraw Demo
> * Lisa 7/7 Disk Images
> * Lisa Pascal 2.0 Reference Manual
> * Lisa Pascal Memos
> * Lisa SANE slides
> * Byte Magazine Article, 9/84
> * Lisa Workshop 2.0 Users Guide
> * How To Deserialize Lisa Disks
> * Lisa Development System Draft 1984
> * Press Release: How Lisa Works
> * Lisa Independant Developer Opportunities
> * Press Release: The Lisa
> * Lisa Startup Error Codes
> * Lisa to Macintosh Migration Kit
> * LisaTalk, Issue #1
> * "The Lisa" Article by Edward W. Birss
> * Lisa Pascal DevelopmentSystem Manual
> * Lisa Pictures
> * Lisa 2 Owner's Guide
> * Lisa Owner's Guide 1.0
> * Lisa Assembly Drawings
> * Boot Rom Information
> * Lisa Parts List
> * General Lisa Information
> * Lisa Repair Manual
> * Apple-History.com/lisa
>
> (end of message)
>
> Here are a few screen shots of the Lisa showing it in action.
>
> Photo of Installing Lisa Office System 3.0:
>
> <not present>
>
> Photo of Lisa Office System 3.0 desktop:
>
> <not present>
>
> Screen dump of Lisa Office System 3.0 desktop (this is David Craig's
> desktop, note the "DTC Paper" icon):
>
> <not present>
>
> Screen shot on Macintosh of Lisa Desktop Manager font:
>
> <not present>
>
> END OF PART 7
>
> Regards,
> David T. Craig
>
> ###########################################################
> # David T. Craig -- CyberWolf Inc. -- ACI 4D Developer #5
> # Aspen Plaza, 1596 Pacheco, Suite 203
> # Santa Fe, NM 87505 USA
> # voice 505.983.6463 ext 15 -- fax 505.988.2580
> # dcraig_at_email.domain.hidden
> ###########################################################
>
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Received on 2001-01-05 16:15:09