Decline and Succession
The downfall of NLS, and subsequently, of ARC in general, was the program's difficult learning curve. NLS was not designed to be easy to learn; it employed the heavy use of program modes, relied on a strict hierarchical structure, did not have a point-and-click interface, and forced the user to have to learn cryptic mnemonic codes to do anything useful with the system. The chord keyset, which complemented the modal nature of NLS, forced the user to learn a 5-bit binary code if they did not want to use the keyboard. Finally, with the arrival of the ARPA Network at SRI in 1969, the time-sharing technology that seemed practical with a small number of users became impractical over a distributed network; time-sharing was rapidly being replaced by individual minicomputers (and later microcomputers) and workstations. Attempts to port NLS to other hardware, such as the PDP-10 and later on the DECSYSTEM-20, were successful, but did nothing to spread NLS beyond SRI.
Frustrated by the direction of Engelbart's "bootstrapping" crusade, many top SRI researchers left, with many ending up at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, taking the mouse idea with them. SRI sold NLS to Tymshare in 1977 and renamed it Augment, and Tymshare was, in turn, sold to McDonnell Douglas in 1984.
The HyPerform program sold by NDMA Inc. is a descendant of NLS and Augment.
Some of the "full-interaction" paradigm lives on in different systems, including the Hyperwords Add-On for Mozilla Firefox. The Hyperwords concept grew out the Engelbart web-documentary Invisible Revolution. The aim of the project is to allow users to interact with all the words on the Web, not only the links. Hyperwords works through a simple hierarchical menu but also gives users access to keyboard "phrases" in the spirit of NLS commands and features Views which are inspired by the powerful NLS ViewSpecs. The Views allow the user to re-format web pages on the fly. Englebart has been on the Advisory Board of The Hyperwords Company since its inception 2006.
From 2005 through 2008 a volunteer group from the Computer History Museum attempted to restore the system.
Read more about this topic: NLS (computer System)
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