Re: [TUHS] Isaacson v Unix

[Paul McJones <paul@mcjones.org>]

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> On Jan 5, 2019,Paul Winalski <paul.winalski@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ...  After Lampson
> left Xerox PARC he set up a similar outfit at Digital'--the Western
> Research Lab (WRL).

Actually, WRL was started by Forest Baskett, formerly of Stanford University. Butler Lampson joined DEC's Systems Research Center (SRC) shortly after it was formed by former PARC manager Bob Taylor.


> ...  I was working in the software tools
> engineering group at the time, and we would have loved to take WRL's
> work and to incorporate it in our products.  But we couldn't.  Why?
> Because they wrote everything in Modula 3, and we were using BLISS.

SRC used Modula-3, and before that a similar language called Modula-2+. Originally, WRL used Modula-2, and then I think switched to C. Perhaps DEC’s engineering groups should also have switched from Bliss to C.


> Yes, PARC invented the modern windows-based GUI, but, as with so many
> PARC innovations, Xerox did nothing with it.  Based on how the PARC
> alumni at WRL behaved at DEC,I would argue that this was the fault of
> PARC as much as of Xerox management.

Xerox built its Star office automation system based on PARC technology and with lots of support from PARC. Star was of course not a big success. PARC also invented laser printers, and Xerox made quite a bit of money from them.


Paul McJones (former Xerox SDD and DEC SRC member — I have been on both sides of the fence)

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