Computer History Museum Adds Historic Xerox Alto Source Code to its Software Source Code Series: Source Code for the First Computer with a Bit-Mapped Display and Mouse is Now Available to the Public

Abstract

Later, more Altos were built and used inside the Xerox Corporation, some were given to universities and in an early marketing test, and some were placed at the White House, the US House of Representatives, and the Atlantic Richfield Company.EMPTY EMPTY "We hope students and researchers alike will find it useful to understand the software development of early computers like the Alto to gain better insight into our current PCs and mobile devices, including developments like windows, the mouse-controlled cursor, multiple typefaces and typestyles, networks, file servers, print servers, and electronic mail," said Paul McJones, founding member of the Museum's Software Preservation Group.EMPTY EMPTY With permission from PARC, the Museum has made available snapshots of the Alto source code, executables, documentation, font files, and other files from 1975 to 1987.EMPTY EMPTY "Working with companies to make the Museum's software collection available is an ongoing project, and we hope to add much more to our holdings as time goes on.