<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"></div><div dir="ltr">More on the mouse.. The best info I have is</div><div dir="ltr"><div style="display: block;" class=""><div style="-webkit-user-select: all; -webkit-user-drag: element; display: inline-block;" class="apple-rich-link" draggable="true" role="link" data-url="https://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf"><a style="border-radius:10px;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;display:block;-webkit-user-select:none;width:228px;user-select:none;-webkit-user-modify:read-only;user-modify:read-only;overflow:hidden;text-decoration:none;" class="lp-rich-link" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf" dir="ltr" role="button" draggable="false" width="228"><table style="table-layout:fixed;border-collapse:collapse;width:228px;background-color:#E9E9EB;font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" class="lp-rich-link-emailBaseTable" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="228"><tbody><tr><td vertical-align="center" align="center"><img style="width:228px;filter:brightness(0.97);height:295px;" width="228" height="295" draggable="false" class="lp-rich-link-mediaImage" alt="preview.png" src="cid:F07C0368-5338-43C9-A905-69649D4BA3B4"></td></tr><tr><td vertical-align="center"><table bgcolor="#E9E9EB" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="228" style="font-family:-apple-system, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;table-layout:fixed;background-color:rgba(233, 233, 235, 1);" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar"><tbody><tr><td style="padding:8px 0px 8px 0px;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStackItem"><div style="max-width:100%;margin:0px 16px 0px 16px;overflow:hidden;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:500;font-size:12px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-topCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#000000" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);">OpticalMouse-Lyon</font></a></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word;font-weight:400;font-size:11px;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;text-align:left;" class="lp-rich-link-captionBar-textStack-bottomCaption-leading"><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf" style="text-decoration: none" draggable="false"><font color="#A2A2A9" style="color: rgba(60, 60, 67, 0.6);">PDF Document · 3.2 MB</font></a></div></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></a></div><br></div><div style="display: block;" class=""><br></div><div style="display: block;" class="">It has introductory material on the earlier mouse designs (wheel and ball) and references for them. Dick Lyon (Tom's brother!) invented the optical mouse.</div><div style="display: block;" class="">-Larry</div></div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Oct 2, 2023, at 9:37 AM, Dan Cross <crossd@gmail.com> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><span>On Mon, Oct 2, 2023 at 9:08 AM Noel Chiappa <jnc@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote:</span><br><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>From: Larry McVoy</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite"><span>And the mouse unless my boomer memory fails me.</span><br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>I think it might have; I'm pretty sure the first mice were done by</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Engelbart's group at ARC (but I'm too lazy to check). ISTR that they were</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>used in the MOAD.</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span>They were and they were, but they were clunky, wooden things. He did</span><br><span>refer to it as a "mouse" in the MOAD, but he also referred to the</span><br><span>cursor as a "bug", which did not catch on.</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>PARC's contribution to mice was the first decent mouse. I saw an ARC mouse at</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>MIT (before we got our Altos), and it was both large, and not smooth to use;</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>it was a medium-sized box (still one hand, though) with two large wheels</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>(with axes 90 degrees apart), so moving it sideways, you had to drag the</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>up/down sheel sideways (and vice versa).</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>PARC'S design (the inventor is known; I've forgetten his name) with the large</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>ball bearing, rotation of which was detected by two sensore, was _much_</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>better, and remained the standard until the invention of the optical mouse</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>(which was superior because the ball mouse picked up dirt, and had to be</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>cleaned out regularly).</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span>Invented by Ronald Rider, developed by Bill English?</span><br><span></span><br><blockquote type="cite"><span>PARC's other big contribution was the whole network-centric computing model,</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>with servers and workstations (the Alto). Hints of both of those existed</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>before, but PARC's unified implementation of both (and in a way that made</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>them cheap enough to deploy them widely) was a huge jump forward.</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>Although 'personal computers' had a long (if now poorly remembered) history</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>at that point (including the LINC, and ARC's station), the Alto showed what</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>could be done when you added a bit-mapped display to which the CPU had direct</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>access, and deployed a group of them in a network/server environment; having</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>so much computing power available, on an individual basis, that you could</span><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><span>'light your cigar with computes' radcally changed everything.</span><br></blockquote><span></span><br><span>This is long, but very interesting: https://spectrum.ieee.org/xerox-parc</span><br><span></span><br><span>Markov's book, "What the Dormouse Said" (which I heard recommended by</span><br><span>Tom Lyon) goes into great detail about the interplay between</span><br><span>Engelbart's group at SRI and PARC. It's a very interesting read;</span><br><span>highly recommended. Engelbart comes off as a somewhat tragic figure.</span><br><span></span><br><span> - Dan C.</span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>