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The Xerox Star: A Retrospective

Presented by:Liang Jin

Weiwen Yang

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Outline What is Star, Its Features and

Design History of Star Development and

Lessons From Experiences

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Star: Feature & Design

General Description of Star Machine and Network Level Window and File Manager Level User Interface Level Document Editor Level

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General Description of Star Star was designed as an office automation system and It was

introduced 1981. The idea was that professionals like to have work station on the

desk and use them to produce , retrieve, distribute and organize documentation, presentations, memos and reports

Workstations would be connected via Ethernet and share file servers and printers,…

Star used a bitmapped screen, windows, a two-buttoned mouse and icons, it was new.

Desktop metaphor Generic commands (Copy, move, delete…) Manipulate graphical elements on screen

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Machine and Network Level

Star was designed to operate in a distributed computing environment.

It combines the advantage and avoids the disadvantage of two primary to interactive computing: Time sharing system and stand-alone personal computers

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Machine and Network Level (continue) Mouse: provide a way for users to

indicate which operations they want and what data they want those operations to be performed on.

Two button mouse in Star. One button in Apple. Predecessors of Star used three button mouse

Why did Star use two button mouse ? Bitmapped Display

7 ViewPoint Screen Image, Bitmapped Display

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Window and File Manager Level

Windows allow several programs to display

information simultaneously in separate areas of the screen

Integrated Applications User doesn’t need to specify certain

application to open and edit documents including text, graphs, spreadsheet, etc

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User Interface Level Desktop Metaphor: represent the

physical objects. Deal mainly with data files.

Tools Metaphor: deal mainly with application as tools

Generic commands: a small set of generic commands. achieves simplicity without sacrificing functionality.

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User Interface Level (continue)

Direct manipulation: Object represent task objects or functions. manipulate the interface object through pointing device.

Star used approach by seeing and pointing. They want users to feel that they manipulate the data directly rather than issuing command to the system

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User Interface Level (continue) Icons and Icon File Management Represent data file with pictures of

office objects Star allows users to organize files

spatially rather than by distinctive naming.

Files in Star can be put in folders or clumped on desktop.

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User Interface Level (continue) Few Modes: A system has modes if user

actions differ in effects or availability in different situations.

Star avoids modes in three ways: One is the extensive use of generic commands,

which reduces the number of commands needed. Second way is by allowing application operate

simultaneously Third way is by using a noun-verb command syntax

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User Interface Level (continue) Objects have properties :

Allow objects of the same type to vary in appearance, layout, and behavior

Progressive Disclosure Dictates the detail be hidden from

users until they ask or need to see it.

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Progressive Disclosure- Star Property Sheet

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User Interface level (Continue) Consistency Emphasize on good graphic and screen

design The Illusion of manipulable objects Visual Order and User focus Revealed the structure Consistent and appropriate graphic

vocabulary Match the medium

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Visual Order and User Focus

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Visual order and User Focus

18Revealed Structure

19Match the Medium

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Document Editor Level WYSIWYG document editor

Star Document are displayed as they will print

Extended character set for multilingual capability ( 16 bit)

Star assumes primary use of the system is to create and maintain documents

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Mathematical Formula

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History of Star development Star was conceived a product in

1975 and was released in 1981. Many of its ideas were dated back

more than three decades .

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How system influenced later system

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Pre -Xerox Memex

Envision a personal, desktop computer for non numerical applications in 1945 (too advanced?)

Sketch Pad Ivan Sutherland build an interactive graphics system

that allowed users to create graphical figures on a CRT display using a light pen in 1960s

NLS system CRT display, full screen and mouse is used in 1960s

The Reactive Engine Interactive applications don’t treat the screen as “

glass teletype” and can share the screen with other programs.

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Xerox PARC PARC was established in 1970. It is for developing the Xerox

existing product line, and Xerox planed expansion into the office system business Topic: material science, laser physics,

integrated circuitry, CAD, UI, CS

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PARC Research Alto: a minicomputer system, with 2.5

MB hard disk, 128 to 256 kb memory in 1972

Ethernet: connected computers into a network, flexible

Smalltalk: the prototype of portable machine developed by Alan Kay’s group evolved into Smalltalk language and programming environment.

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PARC Research (Continue) Pygmalion

First large program written in Smalltalk. Programming a computer does not have to be primary in a textual activity.

Bravo, Gypsy and BravoX Advanced document editing system for Alto

Microsoft Word Direct descendent of BravoX

LisaWrite a descendent of BravoX, for Apple

Draw Graphical object editors that allowed users to

construct figures out of selectable, movable, stretchable geometric forms and text.

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PARC Research (Continue) Markup

a bitmap graphics editor Laser Printing

describe output to laser printer (Press) Laurel and Hardy

Display-oriented tool for sending, receiving, and organizing e-mail.

OfficeTalk supported standard office automation tasks

and tracked "jobs" as they went from person to person in an organization

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Star Star Hardware

8000 series workstation 384kb Memory, 10,29,40 MB Disk, 17inch

Display, mechanical mouse, 8-inch floppy, ethernet

Star Software Incorporated ideas from predecessors, as well

as new ideas, and produced coherent design most of the design and prototyping work was

done in Palo Alto, whereas most of the implementation was done in El Segundo.

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Tajo/XDE Early prototyping and development

was done on Altos and successor research machines

The development environment, known internally as Tajo and externally as Xerox Development Environment (XDE),

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View Point ViewPoint Software

Rewrite Star according to the Tajo model Involve user control

ViewPoint Hardware 6085 workstation 1MB Memory, 10-18MB Disk, 15 or 19-inch display, optical

mouse, 5.25-inch floppy, ethernet. Recent Viewpoint Changes

Xerox ProIllustrator Shared Books Redlining Feature Cursor Keys

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Lessons from Experience Pay attention to industry trends problem. Pay attention to what customers want. Know your competition Avoid geographically-split development

organizations Don't be dogmatic about the Desktop

metaphor and Direct Manipulation Many aspects of Star were correct

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Many aspects of Star were correct Iconic, direct-manipulation, object-

oriented user interface Generic commands and consistency in

general Pointing device High-resolution display Good graphic design 16-bit character set Distributed, personal computing