Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad : know your history

One of the main thought threads going through work and through design as a whole is to know your history. Things have been designed, created, used, and not used over the years. It is of being a good scholar and being a good designer, to know your history. Give credit where it is due.

This is of a video of Alan Kay presenting Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad from 1963. Yes, let that sink in. He was using a pen on a screen in 1963, which is a full 20 years before Macintosh and about 12 before Microsoft came to be. It was a seminal paper when he wrote it, and it was way ahead of its time. Even today’s programs do not encompass all the features that he had.

Here he is on Wikipedia.
Here is a link to his paper, “Sketchpad, A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System.”

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2 Responses to “Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad : know your history”

1. Clemento says:

   August 23, 2009 at 8:23 pm

   I read a few topics. I respect your work and added blog to favorites.

   Reply
2. Aidil says:

   October 6, 2009 at 5:14 am

   Amazing :O

   Reply