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[[Image:Xerox Alto.jpg|thumb|right|240px|The Xerox Alto monitor has a portrait orientation.]]
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The '''Xerox Alto''' was an early [[personal computer]] developed at [[Xerox PARC]] in [[1973]]. It was the first computer to use the [[desktop metaphor]] and [[graphical user interface]] (GUI).
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It was not a commercial product, but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at PARC and at several universities for many years. The Alto greatly influenced the design of personal computers in the following decades, notably the [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]] and the first [[Sun Microsystems|Sun]] workstations. It is now very rare and a valuable collector's item.


==Architecture==
The Alto was first conceptualized in [[1972]] in a memo written by [[Butler Lampson]], and designed primarily by [[Chuck Thacker]]. It had 128 (expandable to 512) [[kilobyte|kB]] of [[main memory]] and a [[hard disk]] with a removable 2.5 [[megabyte|MB]] cartridge, all housed in a cabinet about the size of a small [[refrigerator]]. The Alto's [[Central processing unit|CPU]] was a very innovative [[microcode|microcoded]] processor which used microcode for most of the [[Input/output|I/O]] functions rather than hardware. The microcode machine had 16 tasks, one of which executed the normal instruction set (which was rather like a [[Data General Nova]]), with the others used for the display, memory refresh, disk, network, and other I/O functions. As an example, the bit map display controller was little more than a 16-[[bit]] [[shift register]]; microcode was used to fetch display refresh data from main memory and put it in the shift register.


Apart from an [[Ethernet]] connection, the Alto's only common output device was a bi-level (black and white) [[cathode ray tube|CRT]] [[computer display|display]], mounted in a vertical, "portrait" orientation in contrast to the more common horizontal "landscape" orientation. Its input devices were a custom [[computer keyboard|keyboard]], a three-button [[computer mouse|mouse]], and an optional 5-key [[chord keyset]]. The last two items were borrowed from [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]'s [[On-Line System]]; while the mouse was an instant success among Alto users, the chord keyset never became popular.


The mouse had three buttons. The earliest mice were mechanical and used two wheels perpendicular to each other. These were soon replaced with ball-type mice, which were invented by [[Bill English (computer engineer)|Bill English]]. Later, optical mice were introduced, first using white light and then using IR. The buttons on the early mice were narrow bars arranged top to bottom rather than side to side.


The keyboard was interesting in that each key was represented as a separate bit in a set of registers. This characteristic was used to alter where the Alto would boot from. The keyboard registers were used as the address on the disk to boot from, and by holding specific keys down while pressing the boot button, different microcode and operating systems could be loaded. This gave rise to the expression "nose boot" where the keys needed to boot for a test OS release required more fingers than you could come up with. Nose boots were made obsolete by the "move2keys" program that shifted files on the disk so that a specified key sequence could be used.


A number of other I/O devices were available for the Alto, including a TV camera, the Hy-Type daisywheel printer and a parallel port, although these were quite rare. The Alto could also control external disk drives to act as a file server. This was a common application for the machine.


==Industrial Design==
In 1972, Xerox PARC was seeking a designer to partner with to create the “office of the future,” that would replace the traditional pencil and notepad. Xerox PARC held a design competition and ultimately chose Clement Designlabs to fulfill their industrial design needs, from concept to manufacturing.


The team at Clement Designlabs including Carl J. Clement, Ken Campbell and Fred Stengel was introduced to [[Douglas_Engelbart|Douglas Engelbart]] of SRI, who had produced a ''breadboard'' of the future Alto, which was a rudimentary desktop computer. Clement Designlabs designed and produced an initial run of 80 units, working with Tony Ciuffini and Rick Nevinger at Xerox El Segundo, who were responsible for installing the Alto’s electronics. Due to the success of the pilot run, the team went on to produce approximately 2000 units over the next ten years.


The Alto had “the first detachable keyboard, the first tilt-and-swivel monitor, the first 3-button mouse, and the first compact combination of a ''garageable'' mouse, keyboard, and mini-typewriter.” In addition to the original Alto, the Clement Designlabs team also designed other versions of the Alto, including an Alto with a landscape-oriented monitor, “a Japanese Kanji version of the Alto, a portable Alto, [as well as] 9-micrometre IR item-gate touch screen masks for which [the Clement Designlabs team] did the basic optical research and manufacturing, and the first [flat-bed] scanner.”<ref>“The History of the Xerox Alto”. Carl J. Clement. March, 2002.</ref>


==Software==
Early software for the Alto was written in the [[BCPL programming language]], and later in the [[Mesa programming language]], which was not widely used outside PARC but influenced several later languages, such as [[Modula]]. The Alto keyboard was lacking the [[underscore]] key, which had been appropriated for the left-arrow character used in Mesa for the [[assignment operator]]. This feature of the Alto keyboard may have been the source for the [[CamelCase]] style for compound [[identifier]]s. Another feature of the Alto was that it was microcode-programmable by the user.


The Alto helped popularize the use of [[raster graphics]] model for all output, including text and graphics. It also introduced the concept of the ''bit block transfer'' operation, or [[BitBLT]], as the fundamental programming interface to the display. In spite of its small memory size, quite a number of innovative programs were written for the Alto, including the first [[WYSIWYG]] [[document preparation system]]s [[Bravo (software)|Bravo]] and [[Gypsy (software)|Gypsy]], editors for graphical data ([[bitmaps]], [[printed circuit board]]s, [[integrated circuit]]s, etc.), the first versions of the [[Smalltalk]] environment, and one of the first network-based multi-person [[computer game]]s ([[Alto Trek]] by Gene Ball).


==Diffusion and evolution==
Technically, the Alto was a small minicomputer, but it could be considered a [[personal computer]] in the sense that it was used by a single person sitting at a desk, in contrast with the [[mainframe computer|mainframe]]s and other [[minicomputer]]s of the era. It was arguably "the first personal computer", although this title is disputed by others<ref>
{{cite web
| title=Personal Computer Milestones
| publisher=Blinkenlights Archaeological Institute
| url=http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml
| accessdate=2006-12-31
}}</ref>


The Alto was never a commercial product, although several thousand were built. Universities, including MIT, Stanford, CMU, and the University of Rochester received donations of Altos including [[Xerox Interim File System|IFS file server]]s and [[Xerox Dover laser printer|Dover laser printer]]s. These machines were the inspiration for the ETH Zürich [[Lilith (computer)|Lilith]] and Three Rivers Company [[PERQ]] workstations, and the [[Stanford University Network]] (SUN) workstation, which was eventually marketed by a spin-off company, [[Sun Microsystems]]. The [[Apollo/Domain]] workstation and [[Apple Lisa]] also were heavily influenced by the Alto.


A trip to Xerox PARC by [[Apple Computer]]'s [[Steve Jobs]] in 1979 led to the [[graphical user interface]] and mouse being integrated into the [[Apple Computer|Apple]] [[Apple Lisa|Lisa]] and, later, the first [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]]<ref>{{cite web |title=PBS Triumph of the Nerds Television Program Transcripts: Part III|publisher=PBS (Public Broadcasting System)|url=http://www.pbs.org/nerds/part3.html |accessdate=2007-02-08 }}</ref>. Steve Jobs was shown the [[Smalltalk-80]] programming environment, networking, and most importantly the [[WYSIWYG]], mouse-driven GUI interface provided by the Alto.


The Xerox Alto was used to design the next influential [[Xerox D computers|"D" series]] of workstations: the [[Xerox Dolphin (computer)|Dolphin]], [[Xerox Dorado (computer)|Dorado]] and [[Xerox Dandelion (computer)|Dandelion]]. A [[router|network router]] called [[Xerox Dicentra router|Dicentra]] was also based on this design. Dolphin was a mid-line [[transistor-transistor logic|TTL]] design originally intended to be the Star workstation while Dorado had a very fast [[Emitter Coupled Logic|ECL]] based design. The original architecture for the Dandelion, based on the AMD [[Am2900]] [[bitslice microprocessor technology]], was presented as a paper design called ''Wildflower'' and was the low-cost design that became the actual Star workstation.


==Xerox and the Alto==
{{twootheruses|the concept of Satan|the concept of "devil"|Devil}}
Xerox itself was slow to realize the value of the technology that had been developed at PARC. After their unhappy experience with [[Scientific Data Systems|SDS]] (later XDS) in the late 1960s, the company was reluctant to get into the computer business again with commercially untested designs. So, when the success of IBM's Personal Computer finally pushed Xerox to offer a PC of their own, they pointedly rejected the Alto design and opted instead for a very conventional model, with the then-standard 80 by 24 character-only monitor and no mouse.


When Xerox finally decided to commercialize the work of PARC, they chose to use D-series machines as the basis for a high-end workstation product. The Dolphin (Interlisp), Dandelion (MESA), and Dorado or 'D-Series' machines were virtual-memory machines based on the 'Wildflower' architecture described in a paper by [[Butler Lampson]]. The Dandelion benchmarked with about the same performance as a VAX 11/750, which cost $100,000 at the time. The Dorado - made from ECL - benchmarked 4 times faster and was competitive with the fastest super minicomputers of the day.
[[Image:GustaveDoreParadiseLostSatanProfile.jpg|260px|thumb|[[Gustave Doré]]'s depiction of Satan from [[John Milton]]'s ''[[Paradise Lost]]''.]]
'''Satan''', ([[Standard Hebrew]] '''Satan'el''', [[English language|English]] ''accuser''), is a term that originates from the [[Abrahamic faiths]], being traditionally applied to an [[angel]] in [[Judeo-Christian]] belief, and to a [[Genie|jinn]] in [[Islamic]] belief.


When Xerox finally decided to commercialize the work of PARC, they chose to use the Dolphin as the basis for a high-end workstation product. The Dandelion design became the [[Xerox Star|Xerox 8010]], which ran the Xerox Star workstation software; it was the first commercial product to incorporate a GUI, including icons, windows, and folders. However, these expensive workstations could not compete against the cheaper GUI-based workstations that appeared in the wake of the first Macintosh.
While Hebrew he-Satan is "the accuser" and Satan itself means "to overcome" &mdash; the one who challenged the religious faith of humans in the books of [[Book of Job|Job]] and [[Book of Zechariah|Zechariah]] &mdash; Abrahamic religious belief systems other than [[Judaism]] relate this term to a [[demon]], a rebellious [[fallen angel]], [[devil]], minor god and [[idolatry|idol]], or as an [[allegory]] for [[knowledge]] or the enlightenment of mankind.

==Etymology==
[[Image:Codex Gigas devil.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Satan]] as seen in [[Codex Gigas]].]]

The word 'Satan', and the [[Arabic]] ''شيطان'' "shaitan", may derive from a Northwest Semitic root ''{{unicode|śṭn}}'', meaning "to be hostile", "to accuse."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/S301.html| title=American Heritage® Dictionary: Semitic roots: sn| accessdate=2006-05-31}}</ref> An alternative explanation is provided by the Hebrew in {{bibleverse||Job|1:7|HE}}. When [[God]] asks him whence he has come, Satan answers: "From wandering (''{{unicode|mi'ŝuṭ}}'') the earth and walking on it" (מִשּׁוּט בָּאָרֶץ, וּמֵהִתְהַלֵּךְ בָּה). The root ''{{unicode|ŝuṭ}}'' signifies wandering on foot or sailing. 'Satan' would thus be "the Wanderer".

In Persia, satan was the word for a spy used by the Emperor [[Cyrus]].{{Fact|date=October 2008}} They would be found in public places, speaking unfavorably of the emperor. They would turn in and disappear anyone who agreed with them in those conversations.

'Satan' is {{unicode|שָׂטָן}} ''Satan'' in [[Standard Hebrew]], ''{{unicode|Śāṭān}}'' in [[Tiberian Hebrew]], {{unicode|סטנא}} ''{{unicode|Sāṭānā'}}'' in [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]], Σατανάς ''Satanás'' in [[Koine Greek]], {{unicode|شيطان}} ''{{unicode|Šeytân}}'' in [[Persian language|Persian]], {{unicode|شيطان}} ''{{unicode|Šayṭān}}'' in [[Arabic language|Arabic]], {{unicode|ሳይጣን}} ''{{Unicode|Sāyṭān}}'' in [[Ge'ez alphabet|Ge'ez]], ''{{unicode|Şeytan}}'' in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and {{unicode|شيطان}} ''{{unicode|Shāitān}}'' in [[Urdu language|Urdu]].

==In Judaism==
===In the Hebrew Apocrypha===
[[The Apocrypha]] are religious writings which are not generally accepted as scripture by [[Judaism]] and many modern-day Protestant sects of [[Christianity]]. These works usually bore the names of ancient Hebrew worthies in order to establish their validity among the true writers' contemporaries. To reconcile the late appearance of the texts with their claims to primitive antiquity, alleged authors are represented as "shutting up and sealing" (Dan. XII. 4:9) the works until the time of their fulfillment had arrived; as the texts were not meant for their own generations but for far-distant ages (also cited in [[Assumption of Moses]] I. 16:17).

In the [[Book of Wisdom]], the devil is represented as the being who brought death into the world.<ref>"But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world" - Book of Wisdom II. 24</ref>

The 2nd Book of Enoch, also called the [[2 Enoch|Slavonic Book of Enoch]], contains references to a Watcher [[Grigori]] called Satanael.<ref>[[2 Enoch]] 18:3</ref> It is a [[pseudepigraphic]] text of an uncertain date and unknown authorship. The text describes Satanael as being the prince of the Grigori who was cast out of heaven<ref>"And I threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless" - [[2 Enoch]] 29:4</ref> and an evil spirit who knew the difference between what was "righteous" and "sinful".<ref>"The devil is the evil spirit of the lower places, as a fugitive he made Sotona from the heavens as his name was Satanail, thus he became different from the angels, but his nature did not change his intelligence as far as his understanding of righteous and sinful things" - [[2 Enoch]] 31:4</ref> A similar story is found in the book of [[1 Enoch]]; however, in that book, the leader of the Grigori is called [[Samyaza|Semjâzâ]].

In the apocryphal literature, Satan rules over a host of angels.<ref>''[[Martyrdom of Isaiah]]'', 2:2; ''[[Vita Adæ et Evæ]]'', 16)</ref> [[Mastema]], who induced God to test Abraham through the sacrifice of Isaac, is identical with Satan in both name and nature.<ref>[[Book of Jubilees]], xvii. 18</ref>

For the [[Chasidic Jew]]s of the eighteenth century, Ha-satan was ''Baal Davar''.<ref>The Dictionary of Angels" by Gustav Davidson, © 1967</ref>

The [[Book of Enoch]] contains references to [[Satariel]], thought also to be [[Sataniel]] and [[Satanel|Satan'el]] (entomology dating back to [[Babylonian]] origins). The similar spellings mirror that of his angelic brethren [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]], [[Raphael (angel)|Raphael]], [[Uriel]] and [[Gabriel]], previous to his expulsion from Heaven.

===As the "accuser"===
Where Satan does appear in the Bible, he plays the role of the Accuser.

According to the article on 'Satan' in the [[Jewish Encyclopedia]], Satan's role as the accuser is found:
{{cquote|in the prologue to the Book of Job, where Satan appears, together with other celestial beings before the Deity, replying to the inquiry of God as to whence he had come, with the words: 'From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.' (Job 1:7) Both question and answer, as well as the dialogue which follows, characterize Satan as having the evil purpose of searching out men's sins and appearing as their accuser. He is, therefore, the celestial prosecutor, who sees only iniquity; for he persists in his evil opinion of Job even after the man of Uz has passed successfully through his first trial by surrendering to the will of God, whereupon Satan demands another test through physical suffering. (ib. ii. 3-5.)}}

{{cquote|Yet it is also evident from the prologue that Satan has no power of independent action, but requires the permission of God, which he may not transgress. He cannot be regarded, therefore, as an opponent of the Deity; and the doctrine of monotheism is disturbed by his existence no more than by the presence of other beings before the face of God. This view is also retained in Zech. 3:1-2, where Satan is described as the adversary of the high priest [[Joshua]], and of the people of God whose representative the hierarch is; and he there opposes the 'angel of the Lord' who bids him be silent in the name of God.}}

{{cquote|In both of these passages Satan acts only under permission; but in I Chron. 21:1 he appears as one who is able to provoke [[David]] to destroy Israel. The Chronicler (third century B.C.) regards Satan as an independent agent, a view which is the more striking since the source whence he drew his account (II Sam. 24:1) speaks of God Himself as the one who moved David against the children of [[Israel]]. Since the older conception refers all events, whether good or bad, to God alone, (I Sam. 16:14; I Kings 22:22; Isa. 45:7; etc) it is possible that the Chronicler, and perhaps even [[Zechariah (Hebrew prophet)|Zechariah]], were influenced by [[Zoroastrianism]], even though in the case of the prophet Jewish [[monism]] strongly opposed [[Iran]]ian [[dualism]]. (Stave, ''Einfluss des Parsismus auf das Judenthum,'' pp. 253 et seq.) An immediate influence of the Babylonian concept of the 'accuser, persecutor, and oppressor' (Schrader, ''K. A. T.'' 3d ed., p. 463) is impossible, since traces of such an influence, if it had existed, would have appeared in the earlier portions of the Bible."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=270&letter=S|title=Jewish Encyclopaedia}}</ref>}}

==In Christianity==
{{main|Devil in Christianity}}
{{seealso|War in Heaven}}

In Christianity, terms that are synonymous with 'Satan' include:
* The most common English synonym for 'Satan' is 'Devil', which descends from [[Middle English]] ''devel'', from [[Old English]] ''dēofol'', that in turn represents an early [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] borrowing of Latin ''diabolus'' (also the source of 'diabolical'). This in turn was borrowed from Greek ''diabolos'' "slanderer," from ''diaballein'' "to slander": ''dia-'' "across, through" + ''ballein'' "to hurl."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/94/D0179400.html| title=American Heritage® Dictionary: Devil| accessdate=2006-05-31}}</ref> In the [[New Testament]], 'Satan' occurs more than thirty times in passages alongside ''Diabolos'' (Greek for "the devil"), referring to the same person or thing as Satan.<ref>{{bibleverse||Revelation|12:9}}</ref>
* [[Lucifer]] is sometimes used in Christian theology to refer to Satan, as a result of identifying the fallen "son of the dawn" of Isaiah 14:12 with the "accuser" of other passages in the Old Testament.
* [[Beelzebub]] is originally the name of a [[Philistine]] god (more specifically a certain type of [[Baal]], from ''Ba‘al Zebûb'', lit. "Lord of Flies") but is also used in the New Testament as a synonym for Satan. A corrupted version, "Belzeboub," appears in [[The Divine Comedy]].
* "The dragon" and "the old serpent" in the [[Book of Revelation]] 12:9, 20:2 have also been identified with Satan, as have "the prince of this world" in the [[Book of John]] 12:31, 14:30; "the prince of the power of the air" also called Meririm, and "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" in the [[Book of Ephesians]] 2:2; and "the god of this world" in [[2 Corinthians]] 4:4.<ref>{{bibleverse|2|Corinthians|2:2}}</ref>
* [[Leviathan]] is described as "that crooked serpent," which is also used to describe Satan in Revelation 12:9. 'Sar ha Olam,' a possible name for [[Metatron]], is described as Satan by [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]], [[Jehoel]] and [[Paul of Tarsus|St. Paul]].
[[Image:Gustave Dore Inferno34.jpg|thumb|left|235px|Satan as depicted in [[Cocytus|the Ninth Circle of Hell]] in [[Dante Alighieri]]'s ''[[Divine Comedy|Inferno]]'', illustrated by [[Gustave Doré]].]]
In mainstream Christianity's understanding of the holy Hebrew scriptures, the [[Torah]], Satan is a synonym for the [[Devil]]. For most Christians, he is believed to be an [[angel]] who rebelled against [[God]]— and also the one who spoke through the [[serpent (symbolism)|serpent]] and seduced Eve into disobeying God's command. His ultimate goal is to lead people away from the love of God — to lead them to fallacies which God opposes. Satan is also identified as the accuser of [[Book of Job|Job]], the tempter in the [[Gospels]], the secret power of lawlessness in {{bibleverse|2|Thessalonians|2:7}}, and the dragon in the [[Book of Revelation]]. Before his alleged insurrection, Satan was among the highest of all angels and the "[[Lucifer|brightest in the sky]]." His pride is considered a reason why he would not bow to God as all other angels did, but sought to rule heaven himself. The popularly held beliefs that Satan was once a prideful angel who eventually rebels against God, however, are barely portrayed explicitly in the Bible and are mostly based on inference. Moreover, in mainstream Christianity he is called "the ruler of the demons" (Matt. 12:24), "the ruler of the world" and even "the god of this world." (2 Cor. 4:4). The Book of Revelation describes how Satan will be cast out of Heaven, down to the earth, having "great anger" and waging war against "those who obey God's commandments and hold to the testimony of [[Jesus]]". Ultimately, Satan is thrown into the "lake of fire" ({{bibleref|Revelation|20:10}}), not as ruler, but as one among many, being tormented day and night for all eternity.

In other, non-mainstream, Christian beliefs (e.g. the beliefs of the [[Devil in Christianity#Christadelphians|Christadelphians]]) the word "satan" in the Bible is not regarded as referring to a supernatural, personal being but to any 'adversary' and figuratively refers to human sin and temptation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.christadelphia.org/pamphlet/devil.htm |title=Do you Believe in a Devil? He is a saint. |accessdate=2007-05-29 }}</ref>

==In Islam==
{{main|Shaitan|Iblis}}
''Shaitan'' (شيطان) is the equivalent of Satan in [[Islam]].

While Shaitan (شيطان, from the root {{unicode|šṭn شطن}}) is an [[adjective]] (meaning "astray" or "distant", sometimes translated as "devil") that can be applied to both [[man]] ("al-ins", الإنس) and [[Genie|Jinn]]. [[Iblis]] ({{pronounced|ˈibliːs}}) is the personal name of the Devil who is mentioned in the [[Qur'an]]ic account of [[Genesis]].<ref>[http://www.themystica.org/mystica/articles/i/iblis.html Iblis<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

Whenever the Qur'an refers to the creature who refused to prostrate before [[Adam and Eve|Adam]] at the time of the latter's creation, it refers to him as [[Iblis]]. The Islamic view of Iblis has both similarities and differences with Christian and Jewish views. The character of Satan is generally similar to the one presented in Judeo-Christian thought. However, according to Islamic belief, Satan is not considered to be a 'fallen' angel, but a [[Genie|jinn]] who was among the ranks of angels due to his wisdom and piety; in Islamic belief, angels always follow God's commands, but jinns (like humans) have free will, which explains why Satan was able to rebel against God's command of bowing to Adam<ref>{{quran-usc|17|61}}; {{quran-usc|2|34}}</ref>.

==Other instances of Satan==
Although some other faiths may have an evil figure or entity ''likened'' to Satan (see [[Devil]]), few have a figure actually named 'Satan'.

===Yezidism===
An alternate name for the main deity in the tentatively Indo-European pantheon of the [[Yezidi]], Malek Taus, is Shaitan.<ref>Drower, E.S. The Peacock Angel. Being Some Account of Votaries of a Secret Cult and their Sanctuaries. London: John Murray, 1941. [http://www.avesta.org/yezidi/peacock.htm]</ref>

===In the Bahá'í Faith===
In the [[Bahá'í Faith]], 'Satan' is not regarded as an independent evil power as he is in some faiths, but signifies the "base nature" of humans. [[`Abdu'l-Bahá]] explains: "This lower nature in man is symbolized as Satan -- the evil ego within us, not an evil personality outside."<ref>From The Promulgation of Universal Peace p. 470 [http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/ab/PUP/pup-96.html]</ref></blockquote>

===In Satanism===
{{main|Satanism|LaVeyan Satanism}}
Much "Satanic" lore does not originate from actual Satanists, but from Christians. Best-known would be the [[medieval]] [[folklore]] and [[theology]] surrounding [[demons]] and [[witches]]. A more recent example is the so-called [[Satanic ritual abuse]] scare of the 1980s; beginning with the memoir ''[[Michelle Remembers]]'' – which depicts Satanism as a vast conspiracy of elites with a predilection for [[child abuse]] and [[human sacrifice]]. This genre regularly describes Satan as actually appearing in person in order to receive worship. Claims of Satanic child-molesting or murder rings are largely unsubstantiated.

People claiming to be Satanists – or outsiders claiming to describe Satanism – ascribe a wide variety of beliefs to this movement. These range from the literal worship of a spiritual being ([[Theistic Satanism]]); to a kind of subversive ritual performance stressing the mockery of Christian symbols (most notably the [[Black Mass]]); to the claimed rediscovery of an ancient but misunderstood religion (e.g. [[Setianism]], which conflates Satan with the Egyptian god [[Set (mythology)|Set]]).

The most prominent and widely known Satanist in recent years was [[Anton Szandor LaVey]], who founded the [[Church of Satan]] in 1966. LaVey wrote ''[[The Satanic Bible]]'' (1969) and other works which remain highly influential (though controversial) among avowed Satanists. LaVey rejects the Black Mass, cruelty to animals, or a literal belief in (or worship of) Satan, instead considering Satan as the human instinct within ourselves, which is what [[LaVeyan Satanism]] celebrates. Instead he supports a view of human beings as animals and rejects many social structures that he believes inhibit human instincts.

==Images of Satan==
In art and literature, Satan has been depicted in numerous ways throughout history. According to one interpretation of the book of ''[[Genesis]]'', Satan is identified as the [[snake|serpent]] who convinced [[Eve (Bible)|Eve]] to eat the forbidden fruit; thus, Satan has often been depicted as a serpent. (However, some care to argue that [[Lilith]] was the one who persuaded Eve to take this act upon herself.) This interpretation goes back at least as far as the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, which specifically identifies Satan as being the serpent (Rev. 20:2). In truth, Genesis makes no direct reference to the serpent having another identity, Satan or any other. It has been postulated by many Biblical scholars that Eden's snake is just a snake, able to speak, reason, and tempt Eve because it serves the explanatory purpose.


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Douglas Engelbart]] and [[NLS (computer system)|NLS]]
* [[Yazdânism]]
* [[Morgoth]]
*[[Mousepad]]
* [[God]]
*[[Alan Kay]]
* [[Yama]]
*[[BitBLT]]
*[[Ethernet]]
*[[Apple Macintosh]]
*[[Apple Lisa]]
*[[Xerox Star]]


==Notes==
==Further reading==
* Michael A. Hiltzik, ''Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age'' (HarperCollins, New York, 1999)
{{reflist}}
* Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, ''Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer'' (William Morrow, New York, 1988)


==References==
==References==
''Alto User's Handbook'', Xerox PARC, September 1979
<div class="references-small">
<references />
* {{cite book
| last = Bamberger | first = Bernard J.
| authorlink = Bernard J. Bamberger
| title=Fallen Angels: Soldiers of Satan's Realm
| publisher=Jewish Publication Society of America
| year= 2006
| id=ISBN 0-8276-0797-0
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Forsyth | first = Neil
| authorlink = Neil Forsyth
| title=The Old Enemy: Satan & the Combat Myth
| publisher=Princeton University Press; Reprint edition
| year=1987
| id=ISBN 0-691-01474-4
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Forsyth | first = Neil
| authorlink =
| title=The Satanic Epic
| publisher=Princeton University Press; Reprint edition
| year=1987
| id=ISBN 0-691-11339-4
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Gentry | first = Kenneth L. Jr
| authorlink = Kenneth L. Jr. Gentry
| title=The Beast of Revelation
| publisher=American Vision
| year=2002
| id=ISBN 0-915815-41-9
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Graves | first = Kersey
| authorlink = Kersey Graves
| title=Biography of Satan: Exposing the Origins of the Devil
| publisher=Book Tree
| year=1995
| id=ISBN 1-885395-11-6
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Pagels | first = Elaine
| authorlink = Elaine Pagels
| title=The Origin of Satan
| publisher=Vintage; Reprint edition
| year=1995
| id=ISBN 0-679-72232-7
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Rudwin | first = Maximilian
| authorlink = Maximilian Rudwin
| title=The Devil in Legend and Literature
| publisher=Open Court
| year=1970
| id=ISBN 0-87548-248-1
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Russell | first = Jeffrey Burton
| authorlink = Jeffrey Burton Russell
| title=The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity
| publisher=Cornell University Press; Reprint edition
| year=1977
| id=ISBN 0-8014-9413-3
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Russell | first = Jeffrey Burton
| authorlink =
| title=The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History
| publisher=Cornell University Press; Reprint edition
| year=1992
| id=ISBN 0-8014-8056-6
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Russell | first = Jeffrey Burton
| authorlink =
| title=The Birth of Satan : Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots
| publisher=Palgrave Macmillan
| year=2005
| id=ISBN 1-4039-6933-7
}}

</div>


==External links==
==External links==
*[http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/alto/ Xerox Alto documents at bitsavers.org]
{{wiktionary}}
*[http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/xerox-alto/ At the DigiBarn museum]
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://www.churchofsatan.com/ Church Of Satan]
*[http://www.parc.xerox.com/about/history/default.html Xerox PARC History page]
*[http://www.aci.com.pl/mwichary/guidebook/articles/historical/thexeroxaltocomputer An article on the Xerox Alto in Byte magazine]
* [http://www.thebaptist.org/Lucifer.htm Lucifer - Know His Devices] a Baptist Christian perspective
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04764a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia]
*[http://www.maniacworld.com/alto-computer-video.html The Alto in 1974] Video
*[http://altogether.brouhaha.com/ A microcode-level Xerox Alto simulator]
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=270&letter=S&search=Satan Jewish Encyclopedia]
*[http://norfolk.cs.washington.edu/htbin-post/unrestricted/colloq/details.cgi?id=560 A lecture video of Butler Lampson describing Xerox Alto in depth. (length: 2h45m)]
* [http://www.secweb.org/index.aspx?action=viewAsset&id=310 Internet Infidels - The Implausibility of Satan] by Paul Doland
* [http://www.sacred-texts.org Sacred Texts site] hosts texts--scriptures, literature and scholarly works--on Satan, Satanism and related religious matters
* [http://knol.google.com/k/lev-regelson/satan-and-antichrist/1i7aar4mqflvt/8#.htm Bible Texts about Satan a. Antichrist]


[[Category:Abrahamic mythology]]
[[Category:Xerox|Alto]]
[[Category:Individual angels]]
[[Category:Personal computers]]
[[Category:Demons in Christianity]]
[[Category:Computer workstations]]
[[Category:Fallen angels]]
[[Category:Satanism]]
[[Category:Hell]]


[[de:Xerox Alto]]
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[[it:Xerox Alto]]
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[[pl:Alto (komputer)]]
[[et:Saatan]]
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[[es:Satanás]]
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[[fa:شیطان]]
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[[ko:사탄]]
[[hi:शैतान]]
[[hr:Sotona]]
[[id:Setan]]
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[[he:שטן]]
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[[hu:Sátán]]
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[[ta:சாத்தான்]]
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[[uk:Сатана]]
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Revision as of 22:24, 10 October 2008

The Xerox Alto monitor has a portrait orientation.

The Xerox Alto was an early personal computer developed at Xerox PARC in 1973. It was the first computer to use the desktop metaphor and graphical user interface (GUI).

It was not a commercial product, but several thousand units were built and were heavily used at PARC and at several universities for many years. The Alto greatly influenced the design of personal computers in the following decades, notably the Macintosh and the first Sun workstations. It is now very rare and a valuable collector's item.

Architecture

The Alto was first conceptualized in 1972 in a memo written by Butler Lampson, and designed primarily by Chuck Thacker. It had 128 (expandable to 512) kB of main memory and a hard disk with a removable 2.5 MB cartridge, all housed in a cabinet about the size of a small refrigerator. The Alto's CPU was a very innovative microcoded processor which used microcode for most of the I/O functions rather than hardware. The microcode machine had 16 tasks, one of which executed the normal instruction set (which was rather like a Data General Nova), with the others used for the display, memory refresh, disk, network, and other I/O functions. As an example, the bit map display controller was little more than a 16-bit shift register; microcode was used to fetch display refresh data from main memory and put it in the shift register.

Apart from an Ethernet connection, the Alto's only common output device was a bi-level (black and white) CRT display, mounted in a vertical, "portrait" orientation in contrast to the more common horizontal "landscape" orientation. Its input devices were a custom keyboard, a three-button mouse, and an optional 5-key chord keyset. The last two items were borrowed from SRI's On-Line System; while the mouse was an instant success among Alto users, the chord keyset never became popular.

The mouse had three buttons. The earliest mice were mechanical and used two wheels perpendicular to each other. These were soon replaced with ball-type mice, which were invented by Bill English. Later, optical mice were introduced, first using white light and then using IR. The buttons on the early mice were narrow bars arranged top to bottom rather than side to side.

The keyboard was interesting in that each key was represented as a separate bit in a set of registers. This characteristic was used to alter where the Alto would boot from. The keyboard registers were used as the address on the disk to boot from, and by holding specific keys down while pressing the boot button, different microcode and operating systems could be loaded. This gave rise to the expression "nose boot" where the keys needed to boot for a test OS release required more fingers than you could come up with. Nose boots were made obsolete by the "move2keys" program that shifted files on the disk so that a specified key sequence could be used.

A number of other I/O devices were available for the Alto, including a TV camera, the Hy-Type daisywheel printer and a parallel port, although these were quite rare. The Alto could also control external disk drives to act as a file server. This was a common application for the machine.

Industrial Design

In 1972, Xerox PARC was seeking a designer to partner with to create the “office of the future,” that would replace the traditional pencil and notepad. Xerox PARC held a design competition and ultimately chose Clement Designlabs to fulfill their industrial design needs, from concept to manufacturing.

The team at Clement Designlabs including Carl J. Clement, Ken Campbell and Fred Stengel was introduced to Douglas Engelbart of SRI, who had produced a breadboard of the future Alto, which was a rudimentary desktop computer. Clement Designlabs designed and produced an initial run of 80 units, working with Tony Ciuffini and Rick Nevinger at Xerox El Segundo, who were responsible for installing the Alto’s electronics. Due to the success of the pilot run, the team went on to produce approximately 2000 units over the next ten years.

The Alto had “the first detachable keyboard, the first tilt-and-swivel monitor, the first 3-button mouse, and the first compact combination of a garageable mouse, keyboard, and mini-typewriter.” In addition to the original Alto, the Clement Designlabs team also designed other versions of the Alto, including an Alto with a landscape-oriented monitor, “a Japanese Kanji version of the Alto, a portable Alto, [as well as] 9-micrometre IR item-gate touch screen masks for which [the Clement Designlabs team] did the basic optical research and manufacturing, and the first [flat-bed] scanner.”[1]

Software

Early software for the Alto was written in the BCPL programming language, and later in the Mesa programming language, which was not widely used outside PARC but influenced several later languages, such as Modula. The Alto keyboard was lacking the underscore key, which had been appropriated for the left-arrow character used in Mesa for the assignment operator. This feature of the Alto keyboard may have been the source for the CamelCase style for compound identifiers. Another feature of the Alto was that it was microcode-programmable by the user.

The Alto helped popularize the use of raster graphics model for all output, including text and graphics. It also introduced the concept of the bit block transfer operation, or BitBLT, as the fundamental programming interface to the display. In spite of its small memory size, quite a number of innovative programs were written for the Alto, including the first WYSIWYG document preparation systems Bravo and Gypsy, editors for graphical data (bitmaps, printed circuit boards, integrated circuits, etc.), the first versions of the Smalltalk environment, and one of the first network-based multi-person computer games (Alto Trek by Gene Ball).

Diffusion and evolution

Technically, the Alto was a small minicomputer, but it could be considered a personal computer in the sense that it was used by a single person sitting at a desk, in contrast with the mainframes and other minicomputers of the era. It was arguably "the first personal computer", although this title is disputed by others[2]

The Alto was never a commercial product, although several thousand were built. Universities, including MIT, Stanford, CMU, and the University of Rochester received donations of Altos including IFS file servers and Dover laser printers. These machines were the inspiration for the ETH Zürich Lilith and Three Rivers Company PERQ workstations, and the Stanford University Network (SUN) workstation, which was eventually marketed by a spin-off company, Sun Microsystems. The Apollo/Domain workstation and Apple Lisa also were heavily influenced by the Alto.

A trip to Xerox PARC by Apple Computer's Steve Jobs in 1979 led to the graphical user interface and mouse being integrated into the Apple Lisa and, later, the first Macintosh[3]. Steve Jobs was shown the Smalltalk-80 programming environment, networking, and most importantly the WYSIWYG, mouse-driven GUI interface provided by the Alto.

The Xerox Alto was used to design the next influential "D" series of workstations: the Dolphin, Dorado and Dandelion. A network router called Dicentra was also based on this design. Dolphin was a mid-line TTL design originally intended to be the Star workstation while Dorado had a very fast ECL based design. The original architecture for the Dandelion, based on the AMD Am2900 bitslice microprocessor technology, was presented as a paper design called Wildflower and was the low-cost design that became the actual Star workstation.

Xerox and the Alto

Xerox itself was slow to realize the value of the technology that had been developed at PARC. After their unhappy experience with SDS (later XDS) in the late 1960s, the company was reluctant to get into the computer business again with commercially untested designs. So, when the success of IBM's Personal Computer finally pushed Xerox to offer a PC of their own, they pointedly rejected the Alto design and opted instead for a very conventional model, with the then-standard 80 by 24 character-only monitor and no mouse.

When Xerox finally decided to commercialize the work of PARC, they chose to use D-series machines as the basis for a high-end workstation product. The Dolphin (Interlisp), Dandelion (MESA), and Dorado or 'D-Series' machines were virtual-memory machines based on the 'Wildflower' architecture described in a paper by Butler Lampson. The Dandelion benchmarked with about the same performance as a VAX 11/750, which cost $100,000 at the time. The Dorado - made from ECL - benchmarked 4 times faster and was competitive with the fastest super minicomputers of the day.

When Xerox finally decided to commercialize the work of PARC, they chose to use the Dolphin as the basis for a high-end workstation product. The Dandelion design became the Xerox 8010, which ran the Xerox Star workstation software; it was the first commercial product to incorporate a GUI, including icons, windows, and folders. However, these expensive workstations could not compete against the cheaper GUI-based workstations that appeared in the wake of the first Macintosh.

See also

Further reading

  • Michael A. Hiltzik, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (HarperCollins, New York, 1999)
  • Douglas K. Smith, Robert C. Alexander, Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer (William Morrow, New York, 1988)

References

Alto User's Handbook, Xerox PARC, September 1979

  1. ^ “The History of the Xerox Alto”. Carl J. Clement. March, 2002.
  2. ^ "Personal Computer Milestones". Blinkenlights Archaeological Institute. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  3. ^ "PBS Triumph of the Nerds Television Program Transcripts: Part III". PBS (Public Broadcasting System). Retrieved 2007-02-08.

External links

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