The

AnalyticalEngine,

Volume1,Number

3,January

1994

Page> Well,I’ve started the process.
I registered the name"Computer
History Associationof Delaware"
this afternoon- it’sfunny,
you’ve got to check a set of ledgers to ensure that thename hasn’t already been registered.
I would have beensurprised if I’d found a match in the 1901-1925 ledger

very_:-)....

Would you be willing to forward me a copy of your Statementof
Incorporationand organizational
bylawsas a starting point
fordiscussions?
In Delaware,
you only need a single person forincorporationand no assets....
It’s occurred to me that if you
get a flood of interestin starting otherstate organizations,
it might
be worthwhile
for me to put together
a set ofboilerplate
applications materials
for incorporation
inDelaware....
Let me know what you found usefulorganizationin California.
Now,wheredidI

putthose

RKO3(andnot)

insettingup

thedrives...

Thanks!
--

Tony

Eros,

DigitalEquipment

Corporation[Thanks to you,Tony!
As I write this we’ve alreadysent yousome material by net.mail,but as we look back over the processof assembling this organization,
there’s been a whole lot to it-- even so far. As
try to update -- aourrequest

PLATO>

ANDWhile

history

we build the CHAC, we’1ll put together -- andsuggestion file which will be available fromdaemon.

SMALLTALK

we’reonthetheworld

In the mid
world with1970's,
a largeisgraphics.
The group
Xerox,working withandwassubjectofforgetting:

Smalltalk,Thissystema bitof

there were only two organizations in thebody of experience working with bit-oriented
we remember best today
the Alto computer,thevarious exploratory windowing
centered on the University ofsystem.

here’ssupportedis the group at
Smalltalklanguage,environments.
TheIllinois PLATO IV

closetoathousand

other group
computerinteractive

41

The

Analyticalterminals,
the world

language,Engine,each withexpected aa

Volume1,

a plasma
CRT,
anddismayingly

Number

3,January

1994

Page

42

display panel where the rest of
it supported the TUTOR programming

mixed

blessing,

withveryhighlevel

input
outputfacilities
geared to the bit-addressable
plasmapanel,and control
and data structures
straight
out of the stoneages.

The two groups
developed theirideas about how to handle bit
addressabledisplay hardware
quite independently,
but in the mid
1970's they got together
and traded visiting staff members,
hoping to learn what they could about
each other’s best ideas.
Both sides clearly had some excellent
ideas,
too.
Xerox hadwindows,mice,
the object
oriented paradigm,
and the fundamental
idea of bit-mapped CRT displays,
while PLATO had notesfiles,

input

judging,

addressable

touch-panel

display.

input,

andtheflat

panel

bit

The exchange
was lopsided,
though.
The PLATO people who went toPalo Alto found Smalltalk to be impossible
to learn.
The reason
was that,
as TUTOR programmers,
with background in otherlanguages

almostlikeFORTRAN

impossible

toandgrasp.

BASIC,
Onthethey

otherfoundhand,

objecttheorientation

Xerox

visiting Urbana picked up TUTOR very quickly,
complained
its backward control structures and data structures,
andquickly came to appreciate the brilliance of its dialog

management

peopleabout
very

tools.

The otherside of the coin is also interesting.
The people atXerox were being funded largely out of a hope that they would
providea new technologyfor the “automated office of thefuture".
In doing this,they put in too much time trying toprovidecomputeranalogsof the paper tools of a conventional
office.
While the Xerox community talked about electronic memo
distribution
in very learned tones,
they tended to miss the factthat digital communication could take off in an entirely
different way that bore little resemblance to the way wecommunicateThe

PLATO

with

paper

projectwasandtypewriters.

intended

asanexperimentincomputeraided instruction,and they were so set in this orientation thatthey used the word “lesson"for what all of the rest of us would
call a program.
PLATO had a large on-line user community,
andinteractive multi-user
games were the single mostintensive
application
through the 1970’s,
despite a string of official
policies
discouraging
such use.
In this context,
there was noeffort to mimic the paper and pencil world;
instead,as userdemand grew,
and as tools
succeeded,
they were improved on.

The result was a world of inter user communication based on
mail and notesfiles,
where a notesfile is exactly analogous
newsgroup

wereonUSENET

moderated,buttoday.

theFrom

needfortheirstart

unmoderatedin1973,

Eto

Notesfiles

notesfiles

emergedaThe

AnalyticalEngine,veryquickly.

BecauseVolumeof1,

theNumber3,

educational

January

setting,

1994

thePage

PLATO

project
ended up taking a very mature
stand about the need foranonymouspostings(a stand thatis far more mature than thestands
currently being taken by the majority of Internet
sites
today).
Another exampleof this was the PLATO on-line
user’s manual,
AIDS.
The AIDS
system was entirely non-linear
from its start in1973.
Today,
we would call it a hypertext
document,
but thatterm had yet to spread from California
to the interior.
The
PLATO manual was neverintended to be linearized into a paper
document(although that was eventuallydone),and theinterconnectedstructureof AIDS was a marvelously
effective way
to presentinformation.

Iwasforit.

atIllinois

MyMS

TUTOR language
implementation
This write-up
visitors
fromvisits
otherPLATO--

toonoffromOF

into1980,

1976,

wasa

working

research

aboutvia

Internet

Jones,
HAL

facilities

said

LAYER’SPLATO

was the firstother than a CDC

andtheirwith

but

re-implementationcenterson what
I learned at
XEROX PARC,
as well as being

XEROXDoug1973

a minicomputer;
thisTUTOR on any machine

PLATO people
exchange.

INVENTORY>
Ifromproject,lecturesbased onon

myexperiencesof6600.

bymytheown

duringthememoryofnot

thewhat

PARC

COLLECTION

Outstanding!!
Wonderful Vol. 1, No. 2!! Enjoyed it immensely.
agree with other correspondents in feeling alone in thepursuitand rescue of artifacts before they were thrown out
companies
too involved with survival
and the future to beconcerned with the industry’s
history.

IT havegames,

readers,been
andcomputer
COMPULTECLS...
1956
1964
1971
1972
1973
1974
1974
1974

collectingcomputers.

hereinfor

is

mywee

we we weer

category,listwith

theyears.

best

estimateof

mycategories

severalacquisitions,ere evenofcalculators,

Ifofofdates.

sovalue

far,

in

to

thebyvideo

yourneHeath Electronic Analog Computerkit(front panel only),(Heath)
EAI analog computer,
Model TR-20(EAI)
Compumedic
analog computer,(Compumedic)
GRI Minicomputer,
Model99/IIB
(GRI)
*
Intel
Intellec-8 micro,
CPU:8008,(Intel)
Intel Intellec-4-40
micro,
CPU:
4040,(Intel))
Scelbi-8H Mini-Computer,CPU:
8008,(Scelbi)
IMP-16P.
micro(front panel only),CPU:
IMP-16,(Natl43