On Tue, 21 Dec 1999, Alan Mead wrote:
<snip>
>
> Sorry, this has nothin to do with RH but it is something that I've wondered
> about... whether Microsoft was original in *anything*: Does anyone know
> what the cronology of the introduction of mouse? I guess it was developed
> at Xerox PARC and then was used for X? Before or after initial versions of
> Windows were created? Or did the Xerox machine run some sort of unix?
>
The mouse was developed at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), along
with the Star computer. I don't know the OS it ran. Xerox wasn't really
very savvy about marketing and such, and saw this mostly as a curiosity.
And although the developers were loath to share their work with anyone,
the suits at Xerox told them to show it to the folks at Apple. Who
originated this (Apple or Xerox) I don't know. Later, Microsoft was
shipped a Lisa or early Mac (don't recall which) in order to build
software to run on the Mac (again, don't know if this was Microsoft's or
Apple's origination). From there, Microsoft began to develop Windows.
Where the mouse was originally used for X Windows I don't know, but I
suspect there were close ties between academia and PARC, so it may have
just crossed over that way. Or it may have gone from Apple/Microsoft into
the Unix world. Oddly enough, the Mac has always had a one button mouse,
and Microsoft has always used a two button mouse, whereas X seems to
prefer a three button mouse.
Wish I could be more specific on some of these points. This is from
memory. There are a variety of books out there that detail different
pieces of these events.
Paul M. Foster
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