Visionary

I am reading a note written by a certain Alan C. Kay at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

Kay describes a “personal computer for children of all ages”. This interesting and very detailed description includes, for instance, words like: “Once one has gotten used to the idea of no moving parts, he is ready for the idea of no keyboard at all! Suppose the display panel covers the full extent of the notebook surface. Any keyboard arrangement one might wish can then be displayed anywhere on the surface. […] This arrangement allows the font in which one is typing to be shown on the keys, special characters can be windowed, and user identifiers can be selected with one touch.”

The reason why I consider these words so remarkable is the publication date. Kay’s note was published in the Proceedings of the ACM National Conference, Boston… in August 1972.