Alto System Project: Larry Tesler demonstration of Gypsy

[Recorded on 2017-09-20]
This interpretive production was created from archival footage of Larry Tesler operating the program “Gypsy” on the Computer History Museum’s restored Xerox Alto computer at the Museum’s Shustek Research Archives on September 20th, 2017. Gypsy is a modeless text editor and document preparation program created by Larry Tesler and Tim Mott in the mid-1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) for the Lexington, Massachusetts-based Ginn and Company, a Xerox subsidiary and textbook publisher. In Gypsy, Tesler and Mott made one of the earliest implementations of the “Cut and Paste” idiom for text editing, which has become ubiquitous in computing. This video captures Larry Tesler’s demonstration of cut and paste in Gypsy.
Catalog number: 102738551
Lot number: X8330.2018

[@brulsmurf]

I love how the alto had a screen with the same dimensions as A4 paper. XEROX really looked at everything from the perspective of paper.

[@minty_Joe]

This is an elite individual we're watching. And that computer is what inspired the creation of Apple's Lisa and the first Macintosh in 1984. Godspeed, Larry! RIP.

[@dsblue1977]

This is actually very interesting! It is remarkable how things evolved and developed over time. Some people have said that Apple just copied the Alto. It does not look like it. This Alto GUI has the components but there is still a lot of work to be done to get a modern GUI.

[@Jdvc-yd5tx]

Definitely elite. The ARM RISC chip - A Programmer's Guide (Alex van Someren & Carol Atack), Foreword by Larry Tesler, 13 Aug 1993 (page ix), from The Netherlands, obituary in the Hindustan Times of India, with a link to Xerox Park Alto! I've been looking for a real Xerox demo for TEN YEARS!!!!!! ⚛

[@Jdvc-yd5tx]

I discovered SmallTalk quite by accident: when developing in-class learning apps for my math teaching in Thailand I discovered LiveCode from Edinburgh. That was back when Edingurgh still had all the Community editions (you could download versions from as far back as 2001 if your laptop was that old). Now you have to purchase it, no longer free and no more community, which is why I've turned to Wimp and ARM assembly on my Raspberry Pi. Happenstance and serendipity rules! 😅 🖋

[@superviewer]

Amazing guy. One day we'll have emulators for both the Alto and the Star.

[@jibexi]

This is great for falling asleep to. RiP

[@1ake]

I know right!

[@mikehaas7]

I watched most of this. I was listening for him to confirm that unlike Bravo, which was programmed in BCPL like all the other Alto apps, that Gypsy was created in Smalltalk-76 but I didn't hear him say it - anyone else?

[@V1CT0RMAXX]

the 22k views is just me rewatching this video every time I go to sleep

[@vasilakious8719]

Edupuzzle got me here

[@alexandrosbako5762]

epic ;)

[@elixirix]

i love the fact that typing edit could just delete your whole document!

[@jimihendrixx11]

Interesting. The foundations of personal computing.

[@TheKumarAshwin]

RIP sir 🎉

[@savageredbeard]

What, no comments? (first)

[@savageredbeard]

This guy is awesome. I've enjoyed this.

Well, this really shows that Apple had to make A LOT of work to make GUI actually usable and useful for mere mortals. Everybody who just says that Apple copied Xerox is out of their mind. This is nice concept, but it is so chaotic, I would have zero idea how to work with this. Seems unnecessarily complex

[@danielurbinatoro9496]

epic