Douglas Engelbart, a computer visionary and internet pioneer, and 17 colleagues from the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) conducted a public demonstration of a computer named the oN-Line System on December 9th, 1968. The mouse, hyperlinks, word processing, dynamic file linking, windows, graphical
user interfaces (GUIs), collaborative real-time editors, and videoconferencing, as well as the idea of collaboration and information sharing, were all developed as a result of their work. Many of the concepts of modern, interactive computing were created by Engelbart and his colleagues using the NLS platform. Instead of asynchronous batch processing, the NLS allowed users to alter data directly on the screen and see the results in real time. The NLS used a radar-like screen with a graphical user interface (GUI), which allowed users to edit text, symbols, and video in a sequence of overlapping "windows" instead of punch cards. for example, users may insert, remove, and move content. Users might also switch between two related documents rapidly
using "hypertext" connections. The NLS also allowed for cooperation; users may work on the same document at the same time if different NLS systems were connected together.
In addition, Engelbart and his team experimented with several input devices. For example, they created the (chord keyset) a five-button keypad that was designed to complement the normal QWERTY keyboard. A light pen, a joystick, and a roller-ball operated by the user's knee were among the selecting tools devised and tested by the ARC team to manipulate the on-screen symbols and text. The portable "mouse," a basic
wooden box with two perpendicular metal wheels, a selection button, and a wire connection to the processor, was the most intuitive selection tool.
The first computer mouse, invented in 1964 at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) by Douglas Engelbart and Bill English, is currently on display at the Silicon Valley section of Places of Invention.
Englebart continued working at Xerox Parc, an experimental research facility, Steve Jobs and a group of Apple engineers visited the laboratories in 1979 and "found" the technologies (GUIs, the mouse, windows, and icons) that would go on to develop the Macintosh and shape the following 30 years of computer design and engineering.Douglas Engelbart died in 2013, but he lived long enough to see his impact on contemporary computing. In the end, Engelbart achieved the goal he set for himself which was to maximize his contribution to mankind.
References:
1) https://www.dougengelbart.org/content/view/155/87/
2) https://history-computer.com/douglas-engelbarts-nls/