#Computer network architect nls how to
#Computer network architect nls full

#Computer network architect nls how to

Learning how to use NLS was a formidable task that few took on - despite its potential. 'I think what happened was that Doug was very focused on extremely powerful systems for extremely highly-trained people,' he said. Sadly, said Dr Rulifson, NLS did not win enough people over to become the essential tool that Dr Engelbart envisioned. In 1969 SRI, along with UCLA, was one of the two ends of the first link in the network that became Arpanet - and ultimately the internet. NLS is mentioned in the first RFC - the technical documents that describe the workings of what we know today as the internet. Not only did NLS impress the audience at the FJCC, but it also became the first program scheduled to be used across the fledgling Arpanet that was just being built. The demo was so far ahead of other uses of computers at the time and the technology on show was so powerfully convincing that one attendee later likened Dr Engelbart's efforts to 'dealing lightning with both hands'.

In the 1968 demo Dr Rulifson was at the SRI Lab and appeared on screen in Brooks Hall auditorium while helping Dr Engelbart to show how co-workers could use NLS to collaborate.

#Computer network architect nls full

'We had full text editing and hyperlinks - the mass of what we use today,' said Dr Rulifson. 'It's a symbol they can hang on to but the idea behind it was this idea of putting text into NLS and giving it an entirely new flexibility.' 'I think people get fixated on the mouse,' he said. 'There was no completely unique set of ideas but we pulled it all together.'Īlthough the mouse was central to what NLS could do, said Dr Rulifson, there was more to what Dr Engelbart wanted to achieve. 'There were bits and pieces all around,' he said. Most of this, said Dr Rulifson, had to be invented by the team at SRI.

The 1968 demonstration showed off the computer system, called NLS, developed to put these ideas into practical form.

I was blown away by the ideas.'ĭr Engelbart wanted computers to act as helpers that augmented human intelligence and enabled people to operate far more efficiently and productively than they would without such tools. 'I met Doug and got thoroughly enchanted,' Dr Rulifson told the BBC. Douglas Engelbart had a clear vision of how computers should help people