Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Xerox Alto shopping experience:
1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Xerox Alto offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Xerox Alto at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.
2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about
3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Xerox Alto? Wrong! If the Xerox Alto is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.
4. Questions - Got a question about Xerox Alto then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....
5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Xerox Alto? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Xerox Alto and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.
6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Xerox Alto wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.
7. Feedback - happy with your Xerox Alto then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.
8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Xerox Alto site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site
9. Contact - got a question about Xerox Alto, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.
10. Payment - ready to pay for your Xerox Alto, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.
The
Xerox Alto, developed at Xerox PARC in
1973, was an early
minicomputer and the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI). While often cited as the first
personal computer, other systems are also candidates, and the Alto was a Xerox research tool, not a commercial product.
Software
Early software for the Alto was written in the
BCPL programming language, and later in the Mesa programming language, which was not widely used outside PARC but influenced several later languages, such as Modula. The Alto keyboard was lacking the underscore key, which had been appropriated for the left-arrow character used in Mesa for the
assignment operator. This feature of the Alto keyboard may have been the source for the CamelCase style for compound
identifiers. Another feature of the Alto was that it was microcode-programmable by the user.
The Alto helped popularize the use of
raster graphics model for all output, including text and graphics. It also introduced the concept of the
bit block transfer operation, or BitBLT, as the fundamental programming interface to the display. In spite of its small memory size, quite a number of innovative programs were written for the Alto, including the first WYSIWYG
document preparation systems
Bravo (software) and Gypsy (software), editors for graphical data (
bitmaps,
printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, etc.), the first versions of the Smalltalk environment, and one of the first network-based multi-person
computer games (
Alto Trek by Gene Ball).
Diffusion and evolution
Technically, the Alto was a small minicomputer, but it could be considered a
personal computer in the sense that it was used by a single person sitting at a desk, in contrast with the
mainframe computers and other minicomputers of the era. It was never a commercial product, although several thousand were built. Universities, including MIT, Stanford, CMU, and the University of Rochester received donations of Altos including
Xerox Interim File Systems and Xerox Dover laser printers. These machines were the
one inspiration for the ETH Zürich
Lilith (computer) and Three Rivers Company
PERQ workstations, and the Stanford University Network workstation (SUN) workstation, which was eventually marketed by a spin-off company, Sun Microsystems. The Apollo/Domain workstation and
Apple Lisa also were heavily influenced by the Alto.
The Xerox Alto was used to design the next influential Xerox D computers of workstations: the
Xerox Dolphin (computer), Xerox Dorado (computer) and Xerox Dandelion (computer). A
router called
Xerox Dicentra router was also based on this design. Dolphin was a mid-line transistor-transistor logic design originally intended to be the Star workstation while Dorado had a very fast
Emitter Coupled Logic based design. The original architecture for the Dandelion, based on the AMD
Am2900 bitslice microprocessor technology, was presented as a paper design called
Wildflower and was the low-cost design that became the actual Star workstation.
A trip to Xerox PARC by
Apple Computer's Steve Jobs in 1979 led to the
graphical user interface and mouse being integrated into the Apple Computer
Apple Lisa and, later, the first Apple Macintosh. Steve Jobs was shown the
Smalltalk-80 programming environment, networking, and most importantly the WYSIWYG, mouse-driven GUI interface provided by the Alto.
Xerox created a product division (SDD) to commercialize the work of PARC, initially attempting to use the Dolphin as the basis for a workstation product. The Dandelion design became the Xerox 8010 (computer), which ran the
Xerox Star workstation software. The Xerox 8010 was the first commercial product to incorporate a GUI, including icons, windows, and folders.
The Alto is now very rare and a valuable collector's item.
See also
Further reading
- Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (HarperCollins, New York, 1999)
- Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer (William Morrow, New York, 1988)
References
- Alto User's Handbook, Xerox PARC, September 1979
External links
- Xerox Alto documents at bitsavers.org
- At the DigiBarn museum
- Xerox PARC History page
- An article on the Xerox Alto in Byte magazine
- The Alto in 1974 Video
- A microcode-level Xerox Alto simulator
- A lecture video of Butler Lampson describing Xerox Alto in depth. (length: 2h45m)
The
Xerox Alto, developed at
Xerox PARC in
1973, was an early
minicomputer and the first computer to use the
desktop metaphor and
graphical user interface (GUI). While often cited as the first personal computer, other systems are also candidates, and the Alto was a Xerox research tool, not a commercial product.
Software
Early software for the Alto was written in the
BCPL programming language, and later in the
Mesa programming language, which was not widely used outside PARC but influenced several later languages, such as
Modula. The Alto keyboard was lacking the
underscore key, which had been appropriated for the left-arrow character used in Mesa for the assignment operator. This feature of the Alto keyboard may have been the source for the
CamelCase style for compound identifiers. Another feature of the Alto was that it was microcode-programmable by the user.
The Alto helped popularize the use of raster graphics model for all output, including text and graphics. It also introduced the concept of the
bit block transfer operation, or
BitBLT, as the fundamental programming interface to the display. In spite of its small memory size, quite a number of innovative programs were written for the Alto, including the first WYSIWYG document preparation systems Bravo (software) and Gypsy (software), editors for graphical data (bitmaps,
printed circuit boards,
integrated circuits, etc.), the first versions of the Smalltalk environment, and one of the first network-based multi-person computer games (Alto Trek by Gene Ball).
Diffusion and evolution
Technically, the Alto was a small minicomputer, but it could be considered a
personal computer in the sense that it was used by a single person sitting at a desk, in contrast with the
mainframe computers and other minicomputers of the era. It was never a commercial product, although several thousand were built. Universities, including MIT, Stanford, CMU, and the University of Rochester received donations of Altos including
Xerox Interim File Systems and
Xerox Dover laser printers. These machines were the
one inspiration for the ETH Zürich
Lilith (computer) and Three Rivers Company
PERQ workstations, and the Stanford University Network workstation (SUN) workstation, which was eventually marketed by a spin-off company,
Sun Microsystems. The Apollo/Domain workstation and Apple Lisa also were heavily influenced by the Alto.
The Xerox Alto was used to design the next influential
Xerox D computers of workstations: the
Xerox Dolphin (computer),
Xerox Dorado (computer) and
Xerox Dandelion (computer). A router called
Xerox Dicentra router was also based on this design. Dolphin was a mid-line transistor-transistor logic design originally intended to be the Star workstation while Dorado had a very fast
Emitter Coupled Logic based design. The original architecture for the Dandelion, based on the AMD
Am2900 bitslice microprocessor technology, was presented as a paper design called
Wildflower and was the low-cost design that became the actual Star workstation.
A trip to Xerox PARC by Apple Computer's Steve Jobs in 1979 led to the graphical user interface and mouse being integrated into the Apple Computer
Apple Lisa and, later, the first
Apple Macintosh. Steve Jobs was shown the Smalltalk-80 programming environment, networking, and most importantly the
WYSIWYG, mouse-driven GUI interface provided by the Alto.
Xerox created a product division (SDD) to commercialize the work of PARC, initially attempting to use the Dolphin as the basis for a
workstation product. The Dandelion design became the
Xerox 8010 (computer), which ran the
Xerox Star workstation software. The Xerox 8010 was the first commercial product to incorporate a GUI, including icons, windows, and folders.
The Alto is now very rare and a valuable collector's item.
See also
Further reading
- Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (HarperCollins, New York, 1999)
- Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer (William Morrow, New York, 1988)
References
- Alto User's Handbook, Xerox PARC, September 1979
External links
- Xerox Alto documents at bitsavers.org
- At the DigiBarn museum
- Xerox PARC History page
- An article on the Xerox Alto in Byte magazine
- The Alto in 1974 Video
- A microcode-level Xerox Alto simulator
- A lecture video of Butler Lampson describing Xerox Alto in depth. (length: 2h45m)
