Using the mouse-driven graphical user interface of a personal computer to write a document with a WYSIWYG word processor, check new messages with an email client, and create an organization chart with a drawing program. Just an ordinary day at Xerox PARC in 1978. When email spam was apparently already a thing.
The demo features the Alto workstation and the Bravo word processor. You can hear the noise of the hard disk.
https://archive.org/details/Xerox_Palo_Alto_Demo_August_1978
Really very impressive for the late 1970's.
For anyone interested then @curious_marc and his team have restored an Alto from broken to working state a few years ago.
The hardware, networking and other functions are quite interesting and challenging to repair especially the disk storage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YupOC_6bfMI&list=PL-_93BVApb58I3ZV67LW3S_JEMFnDrQDj
@simonzerafa The Alto design is still slick and modern to this day.
@amoroso @simonzerafa I tried getting used to the portrait form factor. Everything (UI assumptions, display physical properties) fight you on that, these days.
But then again... I'm typing this on a phone
@signaleleven Interestingly, back then there were fewer expectations on the aspect ratio and orientation of screens. Think for example of circular screens in the 1960s.
@amoroso TEdit still supports mouse gestures for text selection similar to the ones of Bravo demonstrated in this 1978 Xerox PARC videotape. The TEdit rich text editor of Interlisp-D and later Medley was developed at PARC after Bravo, the first WYSIWYG word processor.