Sketchpad
From Computer History Wiki
Sketchpad was a graphical user interface system created by Ivan Sutherland; it was a follow-on to prior work at Whirlwind (later used in the SAGE system). Sketchpad was undertaken on the TX-2 system at Lincoln Laboratory.
It was an important predecessor to later computer-aided design work. The next steps after Sketchpad were taken by Douglas Engelbart of the Augmentation Research Center, which was in turn taken up at nearby Xerox PARC, with the ground-breaking Xerox Alto project, the first personal computer of modern form.
Further reading
- William R. Sutherland, On-line graphical specification of computer procedures
External links
- Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System - original thesis
- Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System - another copy
- Looking Back: The TX-2 Computer and Sketchpad
- Computer-Aided Design's Strong Roots at MIT - describes Sketchpad in some detail
