Vision and Reality of Hypertext and Graphical User Interfaces
Master’s Thesis by Matthias Müller-Prove

What happened to the original vision of a personal dynamic medium for creative thought? Retrospect reveals insights that help to reconcile the desktop environment with the Web in order to design a consistent and powerful way to interact with the computer. [Abstract]

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Master Thesis

by Matthias Müller-Prove, Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Horst Oberquelle and Prof. Dr. Christopher Habel.
Published as report of the Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg: FBI-HH-B-237/02, February 2002.
Kempelen Prize 2005 – Special Award in Category Science

Log

2013	internal updates	external news
May	Codex - Memex - Genex, Ben Shneiderman at CHI ’98
April	new entry on Alan Kay’s bibliography:	An Interview with Computing Pioneer Alan Kay. Interview by David Greelish, Time Tech, 2-Apr-2013
		The Deep Insights of Alan Kay
January		Anil Dash: The Web We Lost and Rebuilding the Web We Lost
2012	internal updates	external news
September	Photos of Zuse’s Computers
August	Chapter 2.1.2 Xanadu Chapter 2.1.10 HyperCard – 25 years of HyperCard	The Verge: The very first www page and Tim Berners-Lee's page from HyperText '91 via Paul Jones Ted Nelson's movie from 1959 The Epiphany of Slocum Furlow Online University - History of the Internet
May		Ted Nelson: Computer for Cynics, series of videocasts
2011	internal updates	external news
Nov	Frank Ludolph‘s last working day, and his presentation at CHI ’98
Oct		Dan Ingalls on the History of Smalltalk and the Lively Kernel, 2010
Aug		Photo of HES (Hypertext Editing System)
Jul	Zurück in die Kindheit – Infantilisierung im UI Design Back to Childhood – Infantilisation of UI Design Ivan Sutherland on The Art of Engineering and the Engineering of Art, Hyperkult XX Alan Kay: Programming and Scaling. Hasso Plattner Institute, 21-July-2011, 57'	Ivan Sutherland at Oral history database, Charles Babbage Institute The Buxton Collection
Apr		Bill Verplank’s Opening Keynote at Interaction 11
2010	internal updates	external news
Oct		Ted Nelson at ACM Hypertext 2001 New community for the history of informatics at LinkedIn
Sep	Über das Verhältnis von OO-Programmierung und GUI-Design, Korrespondenz mit Ines aus Wien
Juli	iPAD’s Natural User Interface
March		Engelbart and the Dawn of Interactive Computing – A 40th Year Celebration
January	Ivan Sutherland on Leadership, Sun 2006
2009	internal updates	external news
November		link from OSnews: Common Usability Terms: pt. IX: the Menu referenced by Reformation Bibles and the Personal Computer, Kaoru Yamazaki, 2002
October	section 2.1.14 World Wide Web is online	link from interstices.info: Synthèse d'images link from Sourcebits Blog: Handy Resources for Those Who Like to Doodle
		link from Hypertext – Links from the past
June	Kapitel 5 online: Vom Persönlichen Computer zum Sozialen Medium. Paradigmenwechsel der Mensch-Computer-Interaktion	The Future of the Desktop by Nova Spivack ReadWriteWeb, Aug 2008 Aurora concept video, Adaptive Path
May	Chapter 2.1.15 Hyper-G/Hyperwave
March	links to Department of Informatics Hamburg fixed
2008	internal updates	external news
December	Chapter 2.1.3 NLS/Augment Chapter 3.1.3 NLS/Augment	40 year anniversary of the mothe of all demos
October		referenced by Peter Friedrich Stephan: Cognitive Design – Eine Perspektive der Designforschung, 2005 linked at History of Pen Computing: Annotated Bibliography in On-line Character Recognition and Pen Computing
July	new section online: Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointing Device
February	Fixed links to Bruce Horn and his iFile project
January	Interface Culture (blog)
2007	internal updates	external news
October		linked by Jon Berry's Essay #1 - Literary Website Critique - Sam Hughes' "Ed"
September		Philipp Dennert's diploma: Enabling the User. Zu den historischen Möglichkeitsbedingungen des Computer-Benutzers. ^{105 pages, 4.8 MB}
June	Alan Kay 1972: A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages	Dr. h.c. to Alan Kay
May	A Duel Between Desktop and Web – presentation at reboot9	referenced by BusinessObjects: Business Intelligence Timeline – from 3500 BC to 2007 and on Future Nostalgia, Feb 2007 Web Dragons – Inside the Myths of Search Engine Technology (Links)
Apr		MEDICHI 2007
Mar	Dueling Interaction Models of Personal-Computing and Web-Computing – presentation at MEDICHI	referenced by velasquez: Il Futuro del Desktop, Oct 2006 (Italian)
2006	internal updates	external news
Dec	Chapter 3.1.2 Sketchpad is online Got mail from Ivan Sutherland	History of the Button Reference from Alan Blackwell: The reification of metaphor as a design tool
Oct	Douglas Adams’ Hyperland film (1990) features Ted Nelson	I like the reference to my chapter Three Stages of Human Development on Stages Of Pregnancy Development Resources
Sep		bookmarks on del.iccio.us del.icio.us: Vision and Reality of Hypertext and Graphical User Interfaces del.ico.us: Bibliography on Alan Kay del.ico.us: Bibliography on Ted Nelson
Aug	article on Ted Nelson and Xanadu with a special focus on the incorporated copyright issues Mac UI Ain't All That: The Future & History of the User Interface by John Kheit Alan Kay at EuroPython 2006 Alan Kay at U of Utah (2 lectures in Feb 2006) HyperScope 1.0 by Engelbart et al.	referenced by Axel Dietrich: Alternative Internet Documentation Tim Langeman: Tim's open references
Jun		referenced by Future Gnome VFS cited in Trends and Evolution of Window Interfaces, master thesis by Martin Tomitsch Didaktik der Informatik, Ludger Humpert, Vorlesungsskript 2003, Uni Dortmund: Feedback
May	updated links to Engelbart's papers in References and in Friedewald's Resources
Mar	Ted Nelson 1999: Way Out Of The Box CHI 98 recording of Lisa presentation	referenced by Hélder Máximo Botter Ribas, Brasil Out of Egypt, Nov 22,2005
Feb		referenced by iqnaut: Hypertext
Jan		referenced by VIS242. Theories of Media and New Media, University of California, San Diego
2005	internal updates	external news
Dec	Ted Nelson lecture at U of Oxford, 2005 (webcast)
Nov		cited in Evolución y tendencias en la interacción persona–ordenador por Mireia Ribera Turró, profesora en la Facultad de Biblioteconomía y Documentación de la Universidad de Barcelona.
Oct	A lecure and 3 new articles by Alan Kay (watch out for the stars) An Evening with Ivan Sutherland at the Computer History Museum	Computer History Museum: Software Collection Commitee is preserving NLS/Augment referenced by CSCI 4163: Human Computer Interaction, Dalhousie University, Halifax KMenu Proposal Kay 69 is referenced by: HCI Review of the Xerox Star ramanrao’s information flow: bio & history information flow a-z by date Definition Of Homoiconic
Aug	Kempelen Prize 2005
Jul	60 Jahre nach Memex: Über die Unvereinbarkeit von Desktop- und Web-Paradigma	Memex Simulator – an open source project in progress A Personal Information and Knowledge Infrastructure Integrator by K. Andrew Edmonds, James Blustein and Don Turnbull
Jun	reboot7 A Chat with Doug Engelbart Back to the Future – The Way to a Personal Dynamic Medium for Creative Thought. trip report	SiliconValleyWatcher June 9: A tribute to one of Silicon Valley's most influential and forgotten researchers at Xerox Parc event SiliconValleyWatcher June 10: Exclusive interview with seminal 1960s computer visionary Doug Engelbart – he's still here and looking for funding fischmarkt.de: reboot7 Referenced on delicious by smi and acer
May	Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad - A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System is online as pdf: [Sutherland 63a] Related Reports and Articels: Alan Blackwell’s publications Correspondence with Alan Blackwell
Mar	In Memoriam: Jef Raskin	cited in Evolution der Neuen Medien in der Lehre ^{19 Seiten, 544kB} by Marc-Oliver Pahl, entstanden zum eLearning-Seminar von Frank Hanisch am Institut für graphisch interaktive Systeme der Universität Tübingen, 2003 referenced by exsugo.de ->douglas_c_engelbart /Mirago
Feb	Kay/Goldberg 77: Personal Dynamic Media	The New Media Reader referenced by Advanced Concepts in Document Processing, Seminar at U of Magdeburg, Germany
Jan	section 3.2.2 Three Stages of Human Development online Alan Kay 2002: The Computer Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet - Grand Challenge: Make It Happen In The Best Possible Way Interview wiith Kay, Papert, and Minsky, ACM Communications 2005 Designing the Star User Interface [Smith et al. 82] online The AskTog Bug House

2004	internal updates	external news
Dec	Resources on the concept of Learning	referenced by Tom Kindig on tokind
Nov		referenced by Jörg Richter on DeepaMehta: Human-Computer Interaction
Jul	Alan Kay 1977: Microelectronics and the Personal Computer	referenced by Jochen Denzinger on designing ubicomp _weblog; designing ubiquitous computing
Jun	historical overviews of chapter 2 Hypertext and chapter 3 Graphical User Interfaces are now online Robert Cailliau's personal Web site
May		This work is listed at Infomine as record #303789. reference in folk.uio.no/oddc/sider/bokmerker.html
Apr	Polaroids of the early Lisa UI by Andy Hertzfeld	squeak news: Turing Award g oes to Alan Kay heise ticker: Alan Kay erhält den Turing Award 2003
Jan	38 pages of Ted Nelson's Computer Lib/Dream Machines transcripted

2003	internal updates	external news
Dec		reference on understanding interface (in deutsch) by Sascha Kirschgens
Nov	50 minutes video of Ted Nelson at ACM Hypertext 01
Oct		More than 100 people have requested a copy of my work. Time to say thank you! 5 new reference to this page on BookmarkedPages at LongRun.org Programación Orientado a Objetos by Alberto Pacheco Ramana Rao's INFORMATION FLOW ~~~ Issue 2.5 (May 2003) http://www.tesuji.nu/wiki/61 minimalweb thesis projects
Sep	Related Articles: The Commercial Feasibility of a Next-Generation User Interface by Jared White Ted Nelson's keynote at HT03 in Nottingham	papers citing my thesis: Drag & Drop Scripting: How To Do Hypermedia Right by F. Hanisch and W. Straßer, University of Tübingen, Sep 2003 Multiple Links im World Wide Web von Volkert Buchmann, Studienarbeit an der Uni Hamburg. Nov 2002
Jun	new references to Alan Kay’s thoughts	new references on langreiter.com, and by Stefan Rinner.st, and on the Wiki pages at emergent.de: Reflection in Action
Apr	History: DigiBarn Computer Museum Past Projects: 30th anniversary of the Xerox Alto	This site is references by DigiBarn Computer Museum’s Computer Lib/Dream Machines Retrospective and by Wikipedia on Alan Kay
Feb	Alan Kay joins HP Labs Link maintenance on Web References
Jan	Current Projects: Abora Hypertext Systems related thesis: hypertextual criticism. MA by Jill Walker	This site is references by abora.org - links thesis announced at the CHI Recently Completed Theses List referenced in Hypertexte im Unterricht: Begriffsbestimmung und didaktische Funktion - Manfred Overmann 2003

2002	internal updates	external news
Dec	Current Research Teams: Frode Hegland’s Liquid Information is back on air. He is also working on a documentary “Invisible Revolution - The Doug Engelbart Story” for TV/DVD.
Nov	Bruce Horn is working on a new Finder: iFile Michael McGuffin's work on Fitt's Law: thesis and paper for CHI 2002	This Site is referenced by apeshallnotkillape.org and the surfmindweb collection.
Oct	Ivan Sutherland’s Sketchpad - A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System is online as facsimile: [Sutherland 63a]	This Site is referenced by Marcus Denker’s Wiki pages at the keyword Computer History. It is also refernced by Thomas Madsen-Mygdal’s CommonMe.org.
Sep	Interview with David Curbow on OpenDoc Historical Documents of the Star	Eine kurze Geschichte der Softwareergonomie – Eine Ausstellung anläßlich der Mensch & Computer 2002 in Hamburg met with Alan Kay – delightful!
Aug		Mail from David Curbow on Xerox Star/ViewPoint second printing of FBI-HH-B-237/02
Jul	Past Projects: Apple Lisa – original documentation
Jun	updates on the the page Unfinished Revolution (contents for session III and session IV). And a bunch of new publications by Alan Kay (References)
Feb		the thesis is published as a report of the Department of Informatics: Bericht des Fachbereichs Informatik, Universität Hamburg: FBI-HH-B-237/02
Jan 2002		thesis rated 1.3 (magna cum laude)

2001	internal updates	external news
Nov		The Making Of: Seminar Studien- und Diplomarbeiten 12 Nov 2001 : filed the final version today
Oct		Oberseminarvortrag: Vision und Wirklichkeit des Hypertexts und der Grafischen Benutzungsschnittstellen Abstract
Sep	Related Reports and Articles: Beyond the Browser: Rediscovering the Role of the Desktop in a Net-centric World
Aug	Augmented Books Negroponte’s Dataland	New title: Vision and Reality of Hypertext and Graphical User Interfaces (was: Vision and Reality of Hypertext and the Graphical User Interface); mostly because of [Nelson 99b] «this so-called GUI - I would rather call it the PUI (PARC User Interface) {{laughter}} because there are so many millions of graphical user interfaces possible»
Jul	Ted Nelson on Xanalogical Structure
	Nelson’s Canons: A Bill of Information Rights taken from Dream Machines, 74
	Post von Ludger Humbert: Alan Kay verläßt Disney Kommentar dazu von Markus Denker
	Ted Nelson’s and Alan Kay’s bibliography
Apr	Post von Marcus Denker zu Dynabook und Squeak
	Mail from Alan Kay on Dynabook
	Mail from Alan Kay on early days at Parc
	Mail from Jeff Johnson on consistency of Xerox Star
Mar	Alan Kay’s Ph.D. thesis: The Reactive Engine
Feb	Thesis on Hyper-G
	IZHD: International Bibliography of Hypermedia
	Fitts’ Law
Jan 2001	German correspondence
Jan 2001	[Friedewald 99] References and Resources

2000	internal updates	external news
Dec	cpsr-history	met with Tog and Jakob Nielsen
Nov	Alan Kay on his Ph.D. thesis (e-mail)	day 1 of my thesis: 13-Nov
Oct	Engelbart's Unfinished Revolution – Video
Sep	Past Projects: Xerox Bravo by Charles Simonyi
	e-mail correspondence
	Past Projects: Xerox Alto & Xerox Star
	Past Projects: Symbolics Document Examiner/Concordia Current Projects: CLIM
	Current Projects: Semantic Web
	History: RWTH Aachen - Lehrstuhl für Geschichte der Technik
	Past Projects: Taligent, HotJava Views
	Current Projects: Alan Kay - Smalltalk, Ben Shneiderman - PAD++
Aug	Current Research Teams: Links to Bootstrap Institute & Liquid Information Organization
	Related Thesis
	Google search on ontological drift, Semiotisches Dreieck
	Current Projects: Ted Nelson - Xanadu
	Current Research Teams: Robert Cailliau
	History: Nerds Current Projects: Eazel	Launch of this web site
	Current Research Teams:Pliant, AskTog, Byteburg
Jul 2000	ontological drift, information