The Xerox Star: A Retrospective

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The Xerox Star A Retrospective

• Part 1
• By Frank Lin

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What is Star?

• Star was introduced as the 8010 Star
  Information System in April of 1981
• It was designed as an office automation system
  where workers would produce, retrieve,
  distribute, and organize documentation,
  presentations, memos, and reports

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Star Assumptions

• Workers just interested in getting their work
  done and not interested in computers
• Stars users are casual, occasional users

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Hence

• The system was made to be invisible to the user
• Also, the goal was to make Star easy to learn and
  remember

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Distributed PC

• Star designed to operated in a distributed
  computing environment
• Combined the advantages but avoided the
  disadvantages of time-shared systems and
  stand-alone personal computers
• Star is connected by a local area network with
  shared resources

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Mouse

• Very important device for Star
• Allowed the user to use easily navigate on the
  video display
• Star employed a two-button mouse instead of the
  one-button and three-button mouse

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Display

• Star used a bitmapped display instead of a
  character display
• This allowed for better navigation on the system
  with a mouse

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Window and File Manager

• Windows were used to display multiple information
  simultaneously
• Windows could be overlapped or not overlapped
• The latter choice was chosen because it was shown
  that users spend a lot of time adjusting the
  windows so they wouldnt overlap

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Star

• Star also tried to integrate the different types
  of documents
• Star was not fully integrated in that the
  different documents could not be edited by any
  program

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Stars User Interface

• Desktop Metaphor
• Generic Commands
• Direct Manipulation and Graphical User Interface
• Icons and Iconic File Management
• Few Modes
• Objects have properties
• Progressive Disclosure
• Consistency
• Emphasis on Good Graphic and Screen Design

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Desktop Metaphor

• Star resembles an office desk with surrounding
  furniture
• The user is unaware of the programs within the
  system
• The user believes that they are manipulating
  objects within an office

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Generic Commands

• Simple commands that can be used from program to
  program
• They are defined consistently from program to
  program
• Does not use unnecessary modifiers

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Direct Manipulation and Graphical User Interface

• Users manipulated objects on the screen
• They are not entirely menu driven
• Allowed users to learn and retain easier

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Icons and Iconic Management

• Files are represented by icons with pictures
• Each type of file has a characteristic icon
  representation
• Allows for users to organize spatially rather
  than according to distinctive naming

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Few Modes

• A system has modes if user actions differ in
  effects or availability in different situations
• It was believed modes should be avoided as much
  as possible
• Extensive use of generic commands and allowing
  applications to operate simultaneously reduced
  modes

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Objects have Properties

• Objects of the same type can vary according to
  different properties
• Properties are changed in Star through graphical
  forms called property sheets
• These types of systems are rare

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Progressive Disclosure

• Principle that details are hidden from the user
  until the user ask or needs to see it
• Star provides default settings and hides settings
• It is used in property sheets

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Emphasis on Good Graphic and Screen Design

• The illusion of manipulability objects
• Visual order and user focus
• Revealed structure
• Consistent and appropriate graphic vocabulary
• Match the medium
• WYSIWYG document editor
• Extended character set for multilingual
  capability
• Document is the heart of the system

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History of Star Development

• Part 2
• By Richard Huynh

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Pre-Xerox

• Although Star was conceived as a product in 1975
  and was released in 1981, many of the ideas that
  went into it were born in projects dating back
  more than three decades.
• Memex (1945)
• Sketchpad (1960s)
• Smalltalk (1960s)

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Pre-Xerox (cont.)

• Memex (1945)
• Vannevar Bush, one of President Franklin D.
  Roosevelts science advisor, envisioned a
  personal computer and wrote an article describing
  his vision of the uses of electronics and
  information technology. But due to insufficient
  technology and insufficient imagination of
  others, his ideas languished for 15 years.

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Pre-Xerox (cont.)

• Sketchpad (1960s)
• Ivan Sutherland (now with Sun Microsystems) built
  an interactive graphics system called Sketchpad
  that allowed a user to create graphical figures
  on a CRT display using a light pen. Sketchpad
  influenced Stars user interface as a whole as
  well as its graphics applications.

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Pre-Xerox (cont.)

• Smalltalk (1960s)
• Alan Kay, then a graduate student, wrote a
  dissertation, The Reactive Engine, which
  contained the seeds of many ideas that he and
  others later brought to development in the
  Smalltalk language and programming environment,
  which influenced Star.

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Xerox PARC

• In 1970, Xerox established a research center in
  Palo Alto. The Palo Alto Research Center (PARC),
  was organized into several laboratories.

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Xerox PARC (cont.)

• Among the founding members of PARC was Alan Kay.
  
• He and his colleagues were dedicated to a vision
  of personal computers in a distributed
  environment. In fact, they coined the term
  personal computer in 1973.

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Xerox PARC (cont.)

• One result of the search for a personal-like
  computer was the Alto.
• The first Alto became operational in 1972.

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Xerox PARC (cont.)

• Another product of the new approach was the
  Ethernet.
• Ethernet provided a way of connecting computers
  much more flexibly than previously possible.
  Soon after the first Altos were built, they were
  networked together.
• The Ethernet, with its standard communication
  protocols, became a networking standard.

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Pygmalion

• The first large program to be written in
  Smalltalk was Pygmalion.
• One goal of Pygmalion was to show that
  programming can be accomplished by interacting
  with graphical elements on a screen.

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Pygmalion (cont.)

• A second goal was to show that computers can be
  programmed in the language of the user interface
• By demonstrating what you want done and having
  the computer remember and reproduce it.
• The idea of using icons came mainly from
  Pygmalion.

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Other software's for Alto

• Bravo
• Gypsy
• BravoX
• Microsoft Word
• Markup
• Laser Printing
• OfficeTalk

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Star

• To develop Star, Xerox created the Systems
  Development Department.
• SDD was split between two locations El Segundo
  (SoCal) and Palo Alto (NoCal).
• El Segundo did most of the implementation.
• Palo Alto did most of the design and prototyping.
• Mesa, a dialect of Pascal, was the primary
  product programming language used.

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Star (Xerox 8010)

• The official name for Star was the Xerox 8010,
  Star was only an internal name.

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Major Problem with Star

• It was monolithic.
• The system knew about all applications, and all
  parts of the system knew about all other parts.
  It was difficult to correct problems, add new
  features and increase performance.
• The monolithic architecture also did not lend
  itself to distributed, multiparty development.
• Stars infrastructure was rewritten according to
  the Tajo model.

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Lessons Learned

• Pay attention to industry trends.
• PARC researchers and Stars designers didnt pay
  enough attention to the other personal computer
  revolution occurring outside of Xerox.
• Pay attention to what customers want.
• Star should have been designed from the start to
  be open and extensible by users, as the Alto was.
  Star didnt have the functionality customers
  wanted.

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Lessons Learned (cont.)

• Know your competition.
• 1981 16,595 per workstation.
• Avoid geographically split development
  organizations.
• Organization split between Palo Alto and El
  Segundo was probably a mistake.

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Questions??? See Professor KOBSA!!!