Lecture 2.
History of Computers & Human-computer
interfaces
Some important names in the intellectual history of computers:
* Charles Babbage ( England -- "Calculating Engine" -- mid 1850s).
Pioneered the concept of a computer program which uses the results of one stage
of calculations for the next stage and which can loop and branch.
* Augusta Ada -- Babbage's supporter and the first programmer (England).
Daughter of Lord Byron. Has written programs for Babbage's engine.
* Alan Turing (England -- mid 1940s). Built electronic computer to crack German's
codes. Recognized that a computer is not just a calculator but a symbol processor.
* John Von Neuman (U.S. -- mid 1940s). First recognized the importance of storing
a program internally in computer's memory.
Social origins of computers:
1. Data processing by business and government. Emerging in the 1940s, a computer
was commonly understood simply as a faster calculator.
2. War time needs to quickly crack enemy codes (England) and to calculate tables
for antiaircraft guns (the U.S.)
Three main functions performed by modern computers:
1. Calculation (mathematical and logical).
2. Control: operation of other machines, such as telephone switching networks,
automobile engines, motors, etc.
3. Communication: transfer of text, images, and other data among computers connected
by a network. (Internet foregrounds this function.)
Some recent trends in computing relevant for the arts and culture:
1. "Convergence": coming together of computers, communication technologies
and television. (See www.television.com/tv2k)
2. Computer as a metamedium: a machine which can be used to acquire, manipulate,
store, distribute and access all media formats (text, images, video, film, sound,
music, virtual three-dimensional spaces).
3. Disappearance of a desktop computer? From computers to "information
appliances."
History of human-computer interface (HCI):
* MIT's research for SAGE ("Semiautomatic Ground Environment" -- 1950s):
graphical display.
* Ivan Sutherland's "Sketchpad" program (1962) -- popularized the
idea of controlling a computer by manipulating graphical objects on the computer
screen. Interactive graphical input and output.
* Douglas Engelbardt and colleagues develop main principles of modern GUI (Graphical
User Interface) (1960s) -- mouse control, multiple windows, hypertext, the use
of text and graphics within one computer document, word processing.
* Alan Kay's team at Xerox Park (1970s): Alto workstation - first personal computer.
Alto computer uses bit-mapped graphics and is connected to a network.
* Apple's Macintosh (1984): GUI becomes commercial.
* Tim Berners-Lee begins working on the Web prototype (1989)
* Mosaic, the first graphics-based Web browser is released (1993)
SCREENINGS:
Examples of computer-based artworks
Documentary on SAGE
"The Machine That Changed the World": parts of "Great Brains"
and "The paperback Computer" episodes
LINKS:
required:
The Machine
That Changed the World: Episode I - Creat Brains and Episode III: The Paperback
Computer
optional:
Timeline
of Events in Computer History
Historic computer
images
The
Virtual museum of Computing