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'''NLS'''
The NLS was demonstrated in "[[The Mother of All Demos]]".
==Development==▼
▲== Development ==
[[Douglas Engelbart]] developed his concepts while supported by the US Air Force from 1959 to 1960 and published a framework in 1962.
The strange acronym, NLS (rather than OLS), was an artifact of the evolution of the system. Engelbart's first computers were not able to support more than one user at a time.
First was the [[CDC 160A]] in 1963, which had very little programming power of its own.<ref name="work86">{{cite book |date= June 1986 |publisher= ACM |pages= 73–83|___location= Palo Alto, California |author= Douglas C.
As a short-term measure, the team developed a system that allowed off-line users—that is, anyone not sitting at the one available terminal—to edit their documents by punching a string of commands onto [[paper tape]] with a [[Friden Flexowriter|Flexowriter]].<ref name="BillEnglish">{{cite book |last1=English |first1=William K. |last2=Engelbart |first2=Douglas C. |last3=Huddart |first3=Bonnie |title=Computer-Aided Display Control |date=July 1965 |publisher=Stanford Research Institute |___location=Menlo Park |page=xi |url=https://archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19660020914 |access-date=3 January 2017 |format=Final Report}}</ref> Once the tape was complete, an off-line user would then feed into the computer the paper tape on which the last document draft had been stored, followed by the new commands to be applied, and the computer would print out a new paper tape containing the latest version of the document.<ref name="BillEnglish" /> Without [[interactive visualization]], this could be awkward, since the user had to mentally simulate the cumulative effects of their commands on the document text. On the other hand, it matched the workflow of the 1960s office, where managers would give marked-up printouts of documents to secretaries.<ref>{{cite web |title= Douglas Engelbart |work= Stanford and the Silicon Valley Oral History Interviews |publisher= [[Stanford University]] |author= conducted by Judy Adams and Henry Low |url= http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/histsci/ssvoral/engelbart/start1.html |access-date= April 19, 2011 }}</ref>
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In 1968, NLS development moved to an [[SDS 940]] computer running the [[Berkeley Timesharing System]].<ref name="work86"/>
It had an approximately 96 MB storage disk and could support up to 16 workstations, each comprising a [[raster-scan]] [[Computer monitor|monitor]], a three-button [[Computer mouse|mouse]], and an input device known as a [[chord keyset]]. Typed text was sent from the keyset to a specific subsystem that relayed the information along a [[Bus (computing)|bus]] to one of two display controllers and display generators. The input text was then sent to a 5-inch (127 mm) [[cathode
[[File:On Line System Videoconferencing FJCC 1968.jpg|thumb|Videoconferencing on NLS]]
NLS was demonstrated by Engelbart on December 9, 1968, to a large audience at the [[Fall Joint Computer Conference]] in [[San Francisco]]. This has since been dubbed "[[The Mother of All Demos]]", as it not only demonstrated the groundbreaking features of NLS, but also involved the assembly of some remarkable state-of-the-art video technologies. Engelbart's onstage terminal keyboard and mouse were linked by a homemade [[modem]] at 2400 [[baud]] through a [[leased line]] that connected to [[Augmentation Research Center|ARC]]'s SDS 940 computer in [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]],
|title= The Click Heard Round The World
|date= 2004-01-01
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|url= https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/mouse.html}}</ref>
One of the most revolutionary features of NLS, "the Journal", was developed in 1970 by Australian computer engineer David A. Evans as part of his doctoral thesis.{{efn|It is important to not confuse Dr. (David Alexander) Evans with the numerous other persons who share the same name. He was Managing Director and CEO of MRI magnet startup Magnetica,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.magnetica.com.au/index.php?action=view&view=2683&pid=2677 |title=Dr David Evans, Managing Director and CEO |date=2006 |website=Magnetica.com.au |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718202336/http://www.magnetica.com.au/index.php?action=view&view=2683&pid=2677 |archive-date=2008-07-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and participated in the 1998 symposium honoring Engelbart's work.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://unrev.stanford.edu/presenters/david_evans/david_evans.html |title=engelbart's unfinished revolution: David A. Evans |website=unrev.Stanford.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990508232533/http://unrev.stanford.edu/presenters/david_evans/david_evans.html |archive-date=1999-05-08 |url-status=dead}}</ref>. Dr Evans PhD thesis at Stanford<ref>{{cite web|url=https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/2230226 |title=Man/computer augmentation systems for qualitative planning |website=library.Stanford.edu }}</ref> In Memoriam: Dr David Evans, Uniseed<ref>{{cite web|url=https://uniseed.com/in-memoriam-dr-david-evans/ |title=In Memoriam: Dr David Evans, Uniseed}}</ref>}} The Journal was a primitive hypertext-based [[groupware]] program, which can be seen as a predecessor (if not the direct ancestor) of all contemporary server software that supports collaborative document creation (like [[wiki]]s). It was used by ARC members to discuss, debate, and refine concepts in the same way that wikis are being used today.
The Journal was used to store documents for the [[Internic|Network Information Center]] and early network [[email]] archives.<ref name="autogenerated1973">{{cite journal |url= https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc543 |title= Network Journal Submission and Delivery |author= D. Meyer |journal= RFC 543 |date= July 31, 1973 |___location= [[Augmentation Research Center]] |access-date= April 19, 2011 }}</ref>
Most Journal documents have been preserved in paper form and are stored in [[Stanford University]]'s archives; these provide a valuable record of the evolution of the ARC community from 1970 until the advent of commercialization in 1976. An additional set of Journal documents exists at the [[Computer History Museum]] in California, along with a large collection of ARC backup tapes dating from the early 1970s, as well as some of the SDS 940 tapes from the 1960s.
The NLS was implemented using several ___domain-specific languages that were handled using the [[Tree Meta]] compiler-compiler system.<ref>Engelbart, D., Study for the development of Human Augmentation Techniques. Final Report, July 1968. Sections 4 and 5.</ref> The eventual implementation language was called L10.<ref name="work73">{{cite book |date= June 4–8, 1973 |pages= 9–12 |author1= Douglas C.
In 1970, NLS was ported to the [[PDP-10]] computer (as modified by [[BBN Technologies|BBN]] to run the [[TENEX (operating system)|TENEX]] operating system).<ref name="work73"/> By mid-1971, the TENEX implementation of NLS was put into service as the new Network Information Center, but even this computer could handle only a small number of simultaneous users.<ref name="autogenerated1973"/> Access was possible from either custom-built display workstations, or simple typewriter-like terminals which were less expensive and more common at the time.
By 1974, the NIC had spun off to a separate project on its own computer.
== Firsts ==
All of the features of NLS were in support of Engelbart's goal of augmenting collective [[knowledge worker|knowledge work]] and therefore focused on making the user more powerful, not simply on making the system easier to use.<ref name="invis">{{cite web |title= Invisible Revolution |author= Frode Hegland and Fleur Klijnsma |work= Web documentary |___location= London |url= http://www.invisiblerevolution.net |access-date= April 13, 2011 }}</ref> These features therefore supported a full-interaction paradigm with rich interaction possibilities for a trained user, rather than what Engelbart referred to as the WYSIAYG (What You See Is All You Get)<ref>[http://www.guidebookgallery.org/articles/inventingthelisauserinterface/whatyouseeisallyouget "What you see is ALL you get"], Harvey Lehtmann, Interactions, issue 2/1997, p. 51.</ref> paradigm that came later.<ref name="pursuit">{{cite web |title= A Lifetime Pursuit |author= Christina Engelbart |publisher=
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Engelbart said: "Many of those firsts came right out of the staff's innovations — even had to be explained to me before I could understand them. [The staff deserves] more recognition."<ref name="pursuit"/>
== Decline and succession ==
The downfall of NLS, and subsequently, of ARC in general, was the program's difficult [[learning curve]]. NLS was not designed to be easy to learn; it employed the heavy use of program modes, relied on a strict hierarchical structure, did not have a point-and-click interface, and forced the user
Frustrated by the direction of Engelbart's "bootstrapping" crusade{{Citation needed|reason=What's bootstrapping? not mentioned in article. Also, "crusade" sounds extremely non-neutral|date=October 2016}}, many top SRI researchers left, with many ending up at the [[PARC (company)|Xerox Palo Alto Research Center]], taking the mouse idea with them. SRI sold NLS to [[Tymshare]] in 1977 and renamed it Augment. Tymshare was, in turn, sold to [[McDonnell Douglas]] in 1984.<ref name="work86"/><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/28/business/mcdonnell-to-buy-tymshare.html |title=McDonnell to buy Tymshare |author=Thomas J. Lueck |date=February 28, 1984}}</ref>
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Some of the "full-interaction" paradigm lives on in different systems, including the [[Hyperwords]] add-on for [[Mozilla Firefox]]. The Hyperwords concept grew out of the Engelbart web-documentary Invisible Revolution.<ref name="invis"/> The aim of the project is to allow users to interact with all the words on the Web, not only the links. Hyperwords works through a simple hierarchical menu, but also gives users access to keyboard "phrases" in the spirit of NLS commands and features Views, which are inspired by the powerful NLS ViewSpecs. The Views allow the user to re-format web pages on the fly. Engelbart was on the Advisory Board of The Hyperwords Company from its inception in 2006 until his death in 2013.
From 2005 through 2008, a volunteer group from the [[Computer History Museum]] attempted to restore the system.<ref>{{cite web |title= NLS Augment Index |work= Software Preservation Group |publisher= [[Computer History Museum]] |url= http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/nlsproject |access-date= April 15, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title= NLS Restoration Technical Discussion Archives |publisher= [[Computer History Museum]] |url= http://chm.cim3.net/forum/nls-technical/ |access-date= April 15, 2011
== Visicalc ==
[[Dan Bricklin]], the creator of the first spreadsheet program, [[Visicalc]], saw Doug Engelbart demonstrate the oN-Line System, which was part of Bricklin's inspiration to create Visicalc.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |title=The innovators: how a group of hackers, geniuses and geeks created the digital revolution |date=2015 |publisher=Simon & Schuster Paperbacks |isbn=978-1-4767-0869-0 |edition=1. Simon & Schuster trade paperback |___location=New York|page=354}}</ref>
== See also ==
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* [[ENQUIRE]]
== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== Further reading ==
*{{Cite book |title= Bootstrapping: Douglas Engelbart, Coevolution, and the Origins of Personal Computing |author= Thierry Bardini |author-link= Thierry Bardini |year=2000 |publisher=Stanford University Press |___location=Stanford |isbn=978-0-8047-3723-4 |url= https://archive.org/details/bootstrapping00thie |url-access= registration }}
== External links ==
* On the [http://www.dougengelbart.org Doug Engelbart Institute website] see especially the [http://www.dougengelbart.org/firsts/dougs-1968-demo.html 1968 Demo resources page] for links to the demo and to later panel discussions by participants in the demo; [http://www.dougengelbart.org/about/augment.html About NLS/Augment]; Engelbart's [http://www.dougengelbart.org/about/bibliography.html Bibliography], [http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/videography.html Videography]; and the [http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/engelbart-archives.html Engelbart Archives Special Collections] page.
* [http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html The original 1968 Demo as streaming RealVideo clips]
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