Browse Books

Reviewer: Ernest A Kallman

It may be a surprise to some that personal workstations, which appear to be a relatively new thrust in computing, have such a long and exciting history. This book, the first volume in the ACM Press history series, captures all of it. The book is based on the proceedings of the ACM Conference on the History of Personal Workstations, but it is much more than the usual proceedings. Adele Goldberg has done a masterful job of integrating conference papers (including introductions and discussions) with historically significant papers on the topic, such as Vannevar Bush's “As We May Think,” and numerous photos that reveal as much history as the text. The conference papers have been re-edited and revised to form a rather readable collection. The book begins, as did the conference, with C. Gordon Bell's keynote address. Subsequent entries are “A Personal View of the Personal Workstation—Some Firsts in the Fifties” by Doug Ross; “Some Reflections on Early History” by J. C. R. Licklider; “The Arpanet and Computer Networks” by Larry Roberts; “Mathematical Laboratories: a New Power for the Physical and Social Sciences” by Glen J. Culler; “The Augmented Knowledge Workshop” by Doug Englebart; “Personal Distributed Computing: The Alto and Ethernet Hardware” by Chuck Thacker; “Personal Distributed Computing: The Alto and Ethernet Software” by Butler Lampson; “The Linc was Early and Small” by Wesley Clark; “Hewlett-Packard and Personal Computing Systems” by Chuck House; “A History of the Promis Technology: An Effective Human Interface” by Jan Schultz; and “User Technology: From Pointing to Pondering” by Stuart K. Card and Thomas P. Moran. Remarks by Alan Perlis conclude the book. Alan Kay's banquet presentation, “The Dynabook—Past, Present, and Future,” is represented by a reprint of “Personal Dynamic Media” by Kay and Goldberg. The editor also points out that a videotape of the talk is available from ACM. This book is nicely constructed and accomplishes its purpose. It would be an appropriate addition to one's professional library.