Another thing that was going on at Lincoln Labs
was the first iconic programming.
It was done at Rand Corporation.
The people who did the wonderful interactive programming
language, JOSS, was done for economists
and other non-computer specialist
at Rand who had to compute.
And one of their complaints about--
really their only complaint about JOSS
was they said, hey, none of us can type.
Can't you do something about that?
So that led to the invention of the first data tablet.
It was called the Rand Tablet back then.
And this system from about 1968 called GRAIL,
for Graphical Input Language.
This list of processes takes us back
to the topmost level where we may start to edit the flow--
No keyboard whatsoever.
First, we erase a flow arrow.
Then move the connector out of the way
so that we may draw a box in its place.
Recognize he wanted a box and made one.
Now it's recognizing his hand printing.
Uses commentary only in this case.
The box is slightly too large.
Wants to change the size of the window.
Here's where Macintosh Window Control came from literally.
Then draw a flow from the connector to the box.
Attach a decision element to the box,
and draw a flow from it to scan.
Notice that every command is not just iconic but also analogic.
New area.
And by that I mean that it looks like the thing that you want.
So if you want to scrub something out,
you scrub it out.
If you want to draw a box, you just draw a box.
It recognizes he wants one, makes one the same size.
Chop off a corner.
And label it subscan.
You want characters, you just make characters.
And it recognizes those.
There are no menus to reach to.
You're always looking directly at where you're working.