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To: Distribution Date: Harch 13, 1974
From: Larry Tesler Location: Palo Alto
Subject: The Video Typewriter Organization: SSL
MINI-HOUSE: A HINIMAL VIDEO TYPEWRITER
INTRODUCTION
The primary purpose of Mini-House is to demonstrate a user interface for
display text editing that is rapidly learned and comfortably used. Effort has
been concentrated on what the novice needs to learn the first day of use.
Therefore. the video typewriter is not fully general, and in fact has omissions
which make it completely impractical as a product1o~ text editor.
CONCEPTUAL HODEL
The program tries to s'imulate an ordinary typewriter wherever possible.
All keys which have a meaning on a typewriter have the sama meaning in normal
use of Mini-Mouse. The screen displays one "page" of text at a time -- exactly
what would print in the typing area of a sheet of hard copy. When the video
typewriter is idle. there is a black rectangular cursor (inverted character)
indicating the location that the next-typed character will appear.
The new concepts to be learned by the novice are the ability to insert and
delete characters, and the automatic starting of new lines and new pages with
carry-over of the last word. These features are obvious