[TUHS] in memoriam - Bill English, mouse co-creator
Lawrence Stewart
stewart at serissa.com
Wed Aug 12 03:40:06 AEST 2020
> On 2020, Aug 11, at 1:30 PM, Earl Baugh <earl.baugh at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Sun 1 also had a Hawley mouse ( as an early option ), before they switched to the optical.
>
> Earl
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 11, 2020, at 10:03 AM, Clem Cole <clemc at ccc.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Thanks, Will. A mild sigh while reading it though because history seems to often forget Jack Hawley's role. Truth is he did not invent it, but he >>is<< the one that made them and got people to use them (the Xerox Alto's used a Hawley Mouse, DEC would use it, E&S used them etc.). As this article points out, he made about 80% of all the mice used in the 1970s: https://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/hawley/ <https://www.oldmouse.com/mouse/hawley/> - certainly the first ones I used at CMU before we got the Altos and then after the first Alto's appeared.
>>
>> Tek's Magnolia used a flavor of the Hawley mouse in 1979 [the ones with buttons horizontal/parallel to the 'body' - the original Alto mouse the buttons were horizontal and colored), but I don't remember what 3Rivers PascAlto used - I think so, but I don't remember.
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 10, 2020 at 6:50 PM Will Senn <will.senn at gmail.com <mailto:will.senn at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> All,
>>
>> About a week ago, Bill English passed away. He was a Xerox guy, who along with Douglas Engelbart of "Mother of all demos" fame, created our beloved mouse:
>>
>> https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53638033 <https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53638033>
>>
>> I remember, back in the mid-1980's being part of a focus group evaluating Microsoft's mouse. Wow, time flies.
>>
>> -Will
>> --
>> GPG Fingerprint: 68F4 B3BD 1730 555A 4462 7D45 3EAA 5B6D A982 BAAF
Hawley built the first mice used by PARC. The first optical mouse was invented, AFAIK, by Dick Lyon, see http://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf <http://www.dicklyon.com/tech/OMouse/OpticalMouse-Lyon.pdf> This paper has a brief history of Xerox mechanical mice as well.
Dick is just a renaissance engineer, with contributions to hearing aids, the Fovea camera, and he later designed the Google Street View cameras. His book on Human and Machine Hearing is outstanding.
-L
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