Internet Archive's in-browser video "theater" requires JavaScript to be enabled. It appears your browser does not have it turned on. Please see your browser settings for this feature.

play8?>>

Sketchpad (1963) 2 of 3 - 2D Graphics

by: MIT

Publication date: 1963

Topics: 1963, mit, old

Language: English

Item Size: 69.5M

This is part 2 of 3, demonstrating the 2D capabilities of Sketchpad, including vector scaling and instances.

Periodically throughout computer history there emerges a "pinch point," a single moment where many prior technologies converge, and upon which many subsequent technologies depend. Herman Hollerith's 1890 census tabulator is one well-known instance. Another, somewhat lesser-known, is Ivan Sutherland's "Sketchpad," developed at MIT in the early 1960s, running on the transistor-based TX-2 computer. Nearly all interactive graphics applications today can trace their roots back to this pivotal demonstration. It's considered the first graphical user interface (GUI) at a time when computer graphics of ANY sort were virtually unheard of, let alone the notion that computers could be applied to both artistic and technical purposes.