Computing History Part 1 :

Ancient Computing, and

the Invention of Mainframe Computers,
Operating Systems, High-Level Languages

Dr AG Hamilton-Taylor,
UWI, Mona
material marked with * in slide title
is derived from Georgia Tech

Some of this material has been developed by Georgia Tech HCI faculty, and continues to
evolve. Contributors include Gregory Abowd, Jim Foley, Diane Gromala, Elizabeth Mynatt,
Jeff Pierce, Colin Potts, Chris Shaw, John Stasko, and Bruce Walker. This specific
presentation also borrows from James Landay and Jason Hong at UC Berkeley. Comments
directed to foley@cc.gatech.edu are encouraged. Permission is granted to use with
acknowledgement for non-profit purposes. 1
Why study Computing history?*
• Understanding where you’ve come from
can help a lot in figuring out where
you’re going - repeat positive lessons
 “Those who don’t know history are doomed
to repeat it” - avoid negative lessons
• Knowledge of an area implies an
appreciation of its history
• Dr Hamilton-Taylor’s Computing History
Youtube Channel:
 http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw8n
73H-xKk_YKneNtq0yc73Cj8WBfOIP 2
The Evolution of Computing *
• Series of technological advances
lead to and are sometimes facilitated by a
• Series of paradigm shifts
that in turn are created by a
• Series of key people and events

• What is a paradigm shift?

 A change in thinking that results in a new way of
seeing the world (or science or technology).
– Read Digital Planet Chapter 1, page 18
– https://www.academia.edu/23957621/Digital_Planet_- 3
_Tomorrows_Technology_and_You
(Some of the) Key
Technological Advances *
• Starting point
 Computing in 1945
 Batch processing
• Interactive graphics systems
• Time sharing computers
 One computer to many people
• GUI/Microcomputers
• Internet
• Mobile Computing
4
More Key Technological
Advances *
• The desk top / personal computer
 One computer to one person
• Inexpensive, low-power chips
 Many computers to one person
• Wireless connectivity

5
Paradigm Shifts – How We Use
Computers *
• Interactive Computing - time sharing, Basic
• WIMP Interfaces
 Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointing
 Direct Manipulation
 Metaphors
• Hypertext / WWW
• Computers for person-to-person communications –
not just for computing
 Email, CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work),
Instant Messaging, social networking

6
More Paradigm Shifts *
• Mobile computing
• New interface paradigms
 e.g. voice, gesture, gaze and thought
• Immersive (VR - Virtual Reality) interfaces
• Ubiquitous computing
 Computers embedded in devices, e.g. cars, toasters
 Don’t think of it as a computer or it’s not really
ubiquitous
 Smart houses

7
 (Some of the) Key People and
Events *
• People
• Events
 + Grace Hopper
 Doug Engelbart
 Ivan Sutherland
 Alan Kay
 + Adele Goldberg
 Steve Jobs
 + Mark Dean
 Bill Gates
 + Jim Clark and Marc Hannah
 Tim Berners-Lee
 Larry Page and Sergey Brinn
 Mark Zuckerberg
 Altair
 Apple I
 Founding of Xerox PARC
 IBM PC
 Lisa / Macintosh
 SGI Graphics workstation
 WWW and Browser
 Search Engines, Google
 Smartphones - iPhone
 Social Media, Facebook
8
Telling the Story *
• Key Technological Advances
• Key Paradigm Shifts
• Key People and Events

• Interleaved in more or less chronological

order

9
Computing Machinery Paradigm Shifts

• Manual Computing (20000BC - 1800AD)

 Using tables and algorithms and written records
• Mechanical Computing (1800’s- 1930’s)
 Using mechanical machinery, in addition to algorithms
and storage
• Electronic Computing (1930’s to present)
 Using electronics, in addition to algorithms and storage
• Future
 Biological Computing?
 Quantum Computing?
10
Ishango Bone: First Known
Math (&Computing?) Device
• Bone in found in Congo, Africa,20000 BCE
• First known tool showing multiplication, division,
base arithmetic, prime numbers.
 oldest evidence of the practice of arithmetic in history
 Watch CNN news report on The Ishango Bone:
 https://youtu.be/X3slnefSI0c?t=680
 The numbers in the left column are all of the prime
numbers between 10 and 20
• those in the right column consist of 10 + 1, 10 − 1, 20
+ 1 and 20 − 1.
• Belgians have it in museum and are still studying it
11
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishango_bone (optional)
12
 Ancient Egyptian Math Is Identical To
Math Used In Modern Computers
• Video illustrating how the mathematics used by
Ancient Egyptians is identical to that used in
computers today.
 The Ancient Egyptians figured out how to do
multiplication without memorizing times tables, and
how to do long division in a simple way. See video at
– http://youtu.be/Ih1ZWE3pe9o
• Ethiopians still use it today. Watch
 http://youtu.be/OOKp9_sSkZg
• Egyptian mathemaicians also wrote textbooks on
algebra over four thousand years ago (optional)
13
 http://books.google.com.jm/books?id=gBbPM0petgEC&pg=PA27
Abacus – Manual Computing
• Educating math whiz kids in Japan with Abacus
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZORSQs8hvDU
• How Japanese Soroban Abacus counting works
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhG6o_8KDU
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soroban (see usage)
• History – origin over 3000 years ago
 Area of Origin may be Mesopotamia, Eqypt, or India
 Various regions have different types
 Modern use by merchants most frequent in Japan,
China but also in Russia, Eastern use parts of Africa
– http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Abacus
14
(optional)
Ancient Computing:
Clocks and Calendars
• Ancient Mechanical Computers over 2000 years old
 Tesibius (Ctesibius), an Egyptian scholar, invented the advanced
water clock/calendar, which included gears, hydralics and
musical timekeeping
 Tesibius was the Head of the Royal Institute and
Library/Museum of Alexandria, which was the most advanced in
the world at the time and is considered the father of
pneumatics
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEsc4F4kICE
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctesibius (optional)
• When Archimedes the Greek was 19 he went to study in Egypt at
Alexandria
 Archimedes became a famous mathematician/inventor
 He expanded on the work on clocks/calendars of Tesibius
15
Recording Speech and Ideas Using
Symbols: The Origin of Writing

• Computing is about the manipulation and storage

of symbols
• Writing on papyrus and stone led to storage of
writing and symbols on modern devices
• Early Writing in Egypt
 https://youtu.be/MaNtne30ni8?t=1557 (to min 30)
 From Africa's Great Civilizations series by Prof Louis
Henry Gates of Harvard
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTvBcU5fynS4z
72Ai2WCyJKlZ-dW31zne
 https://www.pbs.org/show/africas-great-civilizations/ 16
The Antikythera Mechanism (2000 year old
Mechanical Astronomy/Calendar Computer)

• A 2000 year old mechanical device was found in

1900AD that could compute the calendar future
and past, the movement of the moon and
planets and even predict eclipses
 It is known as the Antikythera Mechanism.
 It is strongly believed that Archimedes invented it
 Reconstruction of it:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrfMFhrgOFc
– Animation of it working
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqhuAnySPZ0

• Note that the Antikythera Mechanism was a caendar

calculator.
 It was not a clock – it did not keep time 17
More Ancient Computing
• Many Ancient civilisations did remarkable things
 China, India, Maya, etc
• that might have made modern computer
inventions easier
 If they had been studied these ancient inventions
• (optional) Ancient Computing Technology: From
Abacuses to Water Clocks (book):
 http://books.google.com.jm/books?id=gp1DUJ-
UVPUC (optional)

18
The loss of Ancient Computing Knowledge

• Much ancient knowledge was destroyed,

 e.g. the Ancient Library/Museum of Alexandria in Egypt
was burned by invading armies, e.g. Julius Caesar of
Rome
 Archimedes was killed by a Roman army officer when
he refused to be captured
• Some of the knowledge of clocks found its way
east to the new empires in Baghdad, Arabia, etc
 Then to Europe during the Renaissance when the North
African Moors brought it and conquered Spain (before
the age of Columbus and the conquistadors)
19
The word Algorithm comes
from Al-Khwarizmi

• Al-Khwarizmi (pronounced in classical

Arabic as Al-Khwarithmi) was a
• Persian mathematician, 800 AD
astronomer and geographer during the
Abbasid Empire, a scholar in the House of
Wisdom in Baghdad
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad
_ibn_M%C5%ABs%C4%81_al-
Khw%C4%81rizm%C4%AB (optional)
20
The Golden Principle of Al-
Khwarizmi (Algorithm)
• The al-Khwarizmi principle states that all complex problems of
science can be solved by five simple steps:
1. Break down each problem into a number of elemental or ‘atomic’
steps, which cannot be simplified any further.
2. Second, arrange all the elements or steps of the problem in an
order or sequence.
3. Next, find a way to solve each of the elements separately.
4. Then solve each element of the problem, either one at a time or
several at a time, but in the correct order.
5. When all steps are solved, the original problem itself has also been
solved.
• Al-Khwarizmi used his own principle to solve many major problems
of Algebra, Geometry, Astronomy, and other fields of science.
• http://kenatica.wordpress.com/2007/01/30/the-golden-principle-of-
al-khwarizmi-algorithm/ (optional) 21
More on Al-Khwarizmi
• His work on the Indian numerals introduced the
decimal positional number system to the Western
world
• Established the basis for innovation in algebra and
trigonometry.
• Devised a systematic solution of linear and
quadratic equations

22
The word Algebra
• The word "Algebra" is derived from al-jabr, one
of the two operations he used to solve quadratic
equations
• The al-ğabr (in Arabic script '"( )'‫الجبر‬forcing " or
"restoring") operation is moving a deficient
quantity from one side of the equation to the
other side.
• In an al-Khwarizmi's example (in modern
notation), "x2 = 40x − 4x2" is transformed by al-
ğabr into "5x2 = 40x".
23
 The Beginning of Modern
Computing Machinery
• History Of The Computer – 1850’s to modern
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2Wytr8iF64
 Good dcumentary: However,
– Note that they call it the Thinking Machine, but
computers can’t think!
• Read discussion of this issue in our Reference book:
 Digital Planet Chapter 4, pages 106-109
 https://www.academia.edu/23957621/Digital_Planet_-
_Tomorrows_Technology_and_You
• The Machine that Changed the World: Inventing the Future
https://youtu.be/GropWVbj9wA
 Start of IBM Corp: https://youtu.be/YBpNzxz1XgU
24
Babbage and Lovelace’s
Machine
Digital computer grounded in ideas from 1800’s and
earlier:
•Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine
 Watch https://youtu.be/XSkGY6LchJs
 http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/
•Ada Lovelace
 Mathematician, Programmer of Babbage’s Machine,
Collaborated with Babbage
 Wrote the first published computer programs
 http://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/adalovelace/
•Although these design ideas and plans were on target,
these computers were not fully implemented at the time
due to funding and technology constraints. 25
The First Electronic Computers
• There were a number of early electronic
calculators and computers built from about
1940
 http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline
 Arguments persist about which was first
• We will look at a few of the significant early
computers
 World War II pushed computer research for
decoding and other military computation
26
The First Electronic Computers

• These were special purpose machines

 did a limited set of tasks, like giant calculators
 not general-purpose programmable computers
 Hollerith and the punched card machines
– the Census Tabulating Machine
– The improved tabulating machines for the Railroads
– Later the company was formed to create IBM, which made
punch card tabulating machines into an industry
 Colossus
 ENIAC – computations for WWII ballistics tables
• Watch (up to min 34) History of the Computer
 https://youtu.be/q2Wytr8iF64?t=718 (History Channel/A&E) 27
Colossus (1944)

• Colossus was an early (special purpose)

electronic mainframe computer
 It was built by Britain for one purpose:
– to decode Hitler’s war communiques in World War II.
 Watch Colossus: Breaking the Code
https://youtu.be/7cDeG3hyraA
• See BBC article on Colossus/ watch video:
Lifting the lid on a Colossal secret
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26015436
28
Harvard Mark I (1945)

• Harvard Mark I Jason Hong / James Landay,

UC Berkeley, Picture from
• 55 feet long, 8 feet high, 5 tons http://piano.dsi.uminho.pt/m
useuv/indexmark.htm

• (Read: Digital Planet Chap 1 p.6) 29

 Computing in 1945 using
mechanical relay switches

• Ballistics calculations for

World War II
• Physical switches
(relays) (before transistors,
microprocessor)
• Paper tape
• Simple arithmetic &
fixed calculations (before
programs)
Jason Hong / James Landay, UC
Berkeley, Picture from
• 3 seconds to multiply
http://www.gmcc.ab.ca/~supy/
30
 Computing in 1945 *

• First computer bug

• Got stuck in a switch in the Harvard Mark II
mainframe, crashing the computer
 * Grace Hopper coined the term
Jason Hong / James
Landay, UC Berkeley 31
UNIVAC: first successful
commercial mainframe (1951)
• UNIVAC - Designed by Eckert and Mauchly
– They had built the ENIAC for WWII computations
 Built to satisfy demand for a machine that could
commercial record keeping, census, accounting
 Used magnetic tapes for storage, which stored
more and occupied less space than punch cards
 Company was bought by Remington Rand
• Watch The Machine that Changed the World:
Inventing the Future: https://youtu.be/GropWVbj9wA
– Also describes role of IBM, microprocessors and NASA 32
Software and High-level
Programming languages
• What is Software? The Art of Writing
Software https://youtu.be/QdVFvsCWXrA
• Who Invented the High-level programming
language?
 1955: Flow-Matic by Grace Hopper at Rand
 1957: Fortran by John Backus at IBM
– FORTRAN = FORmula TRANslation
– Used for Math/Scientific applications (even now!)
– First publicly released high-level language
 1959: COBOL by Grace Hopper and team 33
 Invention of High-Level
Programming Languages
• Adm. Grace Murray Hopper proposed that
computers could be programmed using English
keywords (instead of machine code),
 but the Rand company management considered the
idea unfeasible.
• In 1955, she and her team wrote a specification
for the FLOW-MATIC programming language
and implemented a prototype on the UNIVAC
 This was refined and developed into COBOL
(Common Business-Oriented Language) in 1959
– Millions of lines of COBOL programs are still in use today
– (Read: Digital Planet Chap 14, pp.509-510 and p.517) 34
 Invention of High-Level
Programming Languages
• Adm. Grace Murray Hopper
 Cobol was the first commercial
High-level computer language
 It is English-like, e.g.
ADD YEARS TO AGE.
IF SALARY > 9001 OR SUPERVISOR-
SALARY OR = PREV-SALARY.

 Prior to this, all programs were

written in machine code and
assembly language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg82iV-L8ZY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBZWFvT2Xwc 35
Batch Processing *

• Computer had one task,

performed sequentially
• No “interaction” between
operator and computer after
starting the run
• Punch cards, tapes for input
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_card
(optional)

• Serial operations

36
Punch Card with FORTRAN code *

37
Punch Card Machine *

38
Context - Computing in 1960s *

• Transistor (1948)
• ARPA (1958)
• Timesharing (1950s)
• Terminals and keyboards

• Computers were still primarily Vacuum Tube

for scientists and engineers and large
companies
39
Inventions Done at/for NASA
• The Space program required the invention of
 the first Microcomputer
 the First Flight Simulator
 Computer-based Flight Control
 Advances in Software Engineering, Operating Systems
 And more...
• Watch the Design of the Apollo Guidance Computer
 https://youtu.be/F1-KBKaCiMM
 And first 3min of https://youtu.be/xc1SzgGhMKc
• These advances then propelled the US industries in
computing, electronics, aerospace, and digital engineering
in general 40
 The Appolo Guidance Control
Computer (AGC)
• The Guidance Control computer had to monitor and
control over 150 devices and systems on the
spacecraft,
• It had to allow control of the rockets by the
astronauts and by the mission control on Earth
It had to keep computing the position etc of the spacecraft
• And it had to be very reliable (with 72 Kb of memory)
• Despite what everyone says about the power of
modern devices, they’re nowhere near as capable
as the landmark early NASA system.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/07/underappreciat
41
ed-power-apollo-computer/594121/ (optional)
Margaret Hamiliton, NASA/MIT

42
Margaret Hamilton on Software Engineering for
the NASA AGC space mission computer and
the Girl who saved the Moon Landing Computer

Watch https://youtu.be/UOUNjytHhNI and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sKY6_nBLG0

43
Margaret Hamiliton, NASA/MIT
• Margaret Hamilton, renowned
mathematician and computer science
pioneer, is credited with having coined the
term software engineering while developing
the guidance and navigation system for the
Apollo spacecraft as head of the Software
Engineering Division of the MIT
Instrumentation Laboratory.

44
The term Software Engineering
• Hamilton explains why she chose to call it
software engineering:
• “I fought to bring the software legitimacy so that
it—and those building it—would be given its due
respect and thus I began to use the term
‘software engineering’ to distinguish it from
hardware and other kinds of engineering…”
 https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/events/what-to-know-about-the-
scientist-who-invented-the-term-software-engineering
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTn56jJW4zY (optional)

45
William Mallary, Test Engineer NASA
Apollo Guidance System AGC-4 1962

46
 Katherine Johnson: NASA
Pioneer and human "Computer“
• Watch animation showing the complexity of the moon
mission:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VvfTY-tVzI
• The Hidden Figures book and film - watch
 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw8n73H-xKk-
gXsoEC6w_STlEEu6kPFvO
• Katherine Johnson did calculations to propel the first
space capsules into orbit around the moon and to
send landing units to and from the lunar surface and
back to earth
 Co-authored the first textbook on space, and papers (optional)
– https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19700031427.pdf

• Watch interview
47
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8gJqKyIGhE
Gladys West and the invention
of GPS

100 Women: Gladys West - the 'hidden figure' of GPS

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-43812053
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_West 48
Gladys West and GPS
• Watch https://youtu.be/6CeaqOPg2GY
• Mathematician inducted into Space and Missiles Pioneers
Hall of Fame
 “…from the mid-1970s through the 1980s, using
complex algorithms to account for variations in
gravitational, tidal, and other forces that distort Earth’s
shape, she programmed an IBM 7030 “Stretch”
computer to deliver increasingly refined calculations for
an extremely accurate geodetic Earth model, a geoid,
optimized for what ultimately became the Global
Positioning System (GPS) orbit
– https://www.afspc.af.mil/News/Article-
Display/Article/1707464/mathematician-inducted-into-space-
49
and-missiles-pioneers-hall-of-fame/
Paradigm Shift – Artificial
Intelligence *
• First release of a significant Artificial
Intelligence language
 LISP (LISt Processing), 1962
 Done at MIT, work started some 7 years earlier

50
Technological Advance:
Interactive Graphics *
• More suitable medium than paper - picture worth
a thousand words
• Sutherland’s SketchPad as landmark system
 Start of Direct Manipulation
 Computers used for visualizing and manipulating data
 * See video:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=495nCzxM9PI

51
Innovator: Ivan Sutherland
• SketchPad - 1963 PhD thesis at MIT
 Hierarchy - pictures & subpictures
 Master picture with instances (ie, OOP)
 Constraints
– E.g. Drawings can straighten themselves according to
rules, e.g. make parallel
 Icons
 Copying
 Light pen input device
 Recursive operations
52
Technological Advance / Paradigm Shift:
Time Sharing *
• (Mid 1960s)
• Command line - teletypes, then “glass teletypes”
• Computers still too expensive for individuals
timesharing
 increased accessibility
 interactive systems, not jobs Need
 text processing, editing for
 email, shared file system HCI*

* There was an unrecognized need for Human Computer Interaction

(HCI)/User Interfaces in the design of programming languages

53
PDP minicomputer series
• PDP (1957 – 1990)
 line of successful commercial minicomputers,
from DEC corporation
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmed_Data_Proce
ssor (optional)
 UNIX and C were developed on it
 Supported interactive timesharing
 PDP CPU architecture influenced the design of
microprocessors
54
The Teletype Terminal
(before CRT’s) *

• ASR: Automatic Send /

Receive
• Save programs on
punched paper tape
• The first direct human-
computer interface
experience for many in
the 1960s
• About 10 characters
per second - 110 bps

55
The CRT Terminal *
• Terminal for
timesharing
• No CPU, not a
computer
• 24 x 80
characters
• Up to 19,200
bits/sec to
central
computer
 (Wow - was
Source: http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/vt100.html fast stuff!)
Innovator: Douglas Englebart *
• Landmark system/demo:
 Hierarchical hypertext, multimedia, mouse,
high-res display, windows, shared files,
electronic messaging,
CSCW,
teleconferencing, ...

 Invented the mouse

57
Augmenting Human Intellect *

• 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference (SF)

• Video of NLS (oNLine System)
• All this took place before
 Unix and C (1970s)
 ARPAnet (1969) & later Internet
http://sloan.stanford.edu/
MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.
html

58
About Doug Engelbart *

• Graduate of Berkeley (EE '55)

 "bi-stable gaseous plasma digital devices"
• Stanford Research Institute (SRI)
 Augmentation Research Center
• 1962 Paper "Conceptual Model for
Augmenting Human Intellect"
 Complexity of problems increasing
 Need better ways of solving problems
Picture from
www.bootstrap.org

59
Engelbart demo popularly called
‘Mother of All Demos’
• Dec 1968 – SRI (Stanford Research Institute)
 The public debut of the computer mouse.
 Many innovations demonstrated that day,
including hypertext, as well as shared-screen
collaboration.
 Watch excerpts from Engelbart’s Demo
– And the thinking that led up to it
– Navigating Knowledge: Hypertext Pioneers
https://youtu.be/hUHsmnWmI3k (first 4 min)
 Engelbart Website:
– http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/dougs-1968-
demo.html (optional)
60
 Augmenting Human Intellect *

• Advantages of
chorded keyboards?
• Disadvantages?

Jason Hong / James Landay, UC Berkeley,

http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/Mouse
SitePg1.html
61
Augmenting Human Intellect *

“At SRI in the 1960s we did some experimenting with a

foot mouse. I found that it was workable, but my control
wasn't very fine and my leg tended to cramp from the
unusual posture and task.”
http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/MouseSitePg1.html
62
Augmenting Human Intellect *

Early
3-button
Chorded mouse
Keyboard

63
Augmenting Human Intellect *
• Discussion, if you watched the video
• What did we just see?
 Interaction devices
 Interaction styles
 Applications

• Note that chorded keyboard allows user to type

without taking hand off the mouse
 Regular and chorded keyboard can be used together

64
Augmenting Human Intellect *

• First mouse First groupware

• First hypertext (shared screen
• First word processing teleconferencing)
• First 2D editing and First context-
windows sensitive help
• First document version First distributed
control client-server
Many, many more!
65
Augmentation not Automation *

"I tell people: look, you can spend all you want on building
smart agents and smart tools…"
"I'd bet that if you then give those to twenty people with no
special training, and if you let me take twenty people and
really condition and train them especially to learn how to
harness the tools…"
"The people with the training will always outdo the people for
whom the computers were supposed to do the work."

66
Augmenting Human Intellect *

• Example: Roman Numerals vs Arabic

• What is XCI + III?
• Now what is XCI x III?
• What is 91 * 3?
• New kinds of artifacts, languages,
methodologies, and training can enable us
to do things we couldn't do before or
simplify what we already do
67
 UNIX and C
• Developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees
at Bell Labs for internal use in their lab
 Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and others
 was not supported by the company initially
• Unix versions include
 SUN OS, NextOS, Mac OS X, Linux, iOS, Android, others
• The C language was developed by Ritchie and
Thompson in 1973 for programming UNIX,
 C is now used to write systems software, other
languages, other operating systems
 It influenced C++, Java, JavaScript, Objective-C, C#, 68
many other languages
More Innovation
• Jos/GraiL – first tablet, first visual programming
system, first handwriting recognition system,
1968
 Alan Kay Video (min 3:50 to 5:30)
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6h-zDOggYQ
– http://youtu.be/QQhVQ1UG6aM

• PLATO, 1960 – 1970’s

 First large Computer-Based Education System
 First Touchscreen
 First Email, online forum/social media…. Watch
 http://youtu.be/rf5_ivobNb4
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PLATO_(computer_system) (optional)69
End of Part 1

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