Xerox Palo Alto Research Center

Knights, J., Xerox Palo Alto Research Center... 

XEROX PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA... 

N.M. Johnson, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road Palo Alto, California 94304 (1, 113, 225)... 

J.E. Northrup A7.2 Xerox Palo Alto Res., Xerox Palo Alto Research Center 3333 Coyote Hill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA... 

I would like to express my appreciation to the Xerox Corporation for their support in this project, and to the many colleagues at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, with whom it has been my pleasure to work on amorphous silicon. Particular thanks go to D. K. Biegelsen, M. Hack, A. C. Street and S. Wagner for their comments on the text. 

For several years, operating systems were character based. They displayed information on the screen in text format and people interacted with them using command words. Then, a couple of people at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), intrigued with the idea that computers should be friendly and easy to use, started working with a graphical user interface (GUI), which used pictures to represent computer entities (like files, disks, and so on). To interact with the pictures, a special device was introduced into the computer world. This device was the mouse. The mouse translates movements on a horizontal surface into movements of a pointer on the screen. There are two methods of making these translations opto-mechanical and optical. 

VanLehn, K. Felicity conditions for human skill acquisition Validating an Al-based theory (Technical Report CIS-21). Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Out of print, but available from University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, MI 49106.1983a. 

Kurt VanLehn is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his B.S. in mathematics from Stanford University in 1974, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and 1983, respectively. Prior to joining CMU, he was a Research Associate at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA and at Bolt Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, MA. 

Randall B. Smith received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of California at San Diego and taught for two years before becoming involved in computer science with Atari Computer Corporate Research Group. He joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center a year later, where he completed the work described in his chapter. He is now at Sun Labs, Palo Alto. His interests include object-oriented programming languages and environments, educational uses of computers, and computer support for collaborative work. 

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Palo Alto, CA 94304... 

---