Editing PARC (section)

==Accomplishments==
In addition to developing the [[laser printer]], PARC has been the incubator of many elements of modern personal computing including:
*Computer generated [[bitmap]] graphics
*[[Graphical user interface]] featuring windows and icons
*[[WYSIWYG]] text editor
*[[InterPress]] (a resolution-independent graphical page description language and the precursor to [[PostScript]])
*[[Ethernet]] local area computer network
*Fully formed [[object-oriented programming]] in the [[Smalltalk programming language]] and integrated development environment.

===The Alto=== 
Most of these developments were included in the [[Xerox Alto|Alto]], which added the now familiar [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]-developed [[Computer mouse|mouse]]<ref name="fn_1">Xerox PARC was the first research group to widely adopt the mouse invented by [[Douglas Engelbart]]'s [[Augmentation Research Center]] at the [[Stanford Research Institute]] (now [[SRI International]]) in [[Menlo Park, California]]</ref> unifying into a single model most aspects of now-standard personal computer use. The integration of Ethernet prompted the development of the [[PARC Universal Packet]] architecture, much like today's Internet.

===The GUI===
Xerox has been heavily criticized (particularly by business historians) for failing to properly commercialize and profitably exploit PARC's innovations. A favorite example is the GUI, initially developed at PARC for the Alto and then commercialized as the [[Xerox Star]] by the Xerox Systems Development Department. Although very significant in terms of its influence on future system design, it is deemed a failure because it only sold approximately 25,000 units. A small group from PARC led by [[David Liddle]] and [[Charles Irby]] formed [[Metaphor Computer Systems]]. They extended the Star desktop concept into an animated graphic and communicating office automation model and sold the company to IBM. 

====Adoption by Apple====
The first successful commercial GUI product was the [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] [[Apple Macintosh|Macintosh]], which was heavily inspired by PARC's work; Xerox was given Apple stock in exchange for engineer visits and an understanding that Apple would create a GUI product. Much later, in the midst of the [[Apple v. Microsoft]] lawsuit in which Apple accused Microsoft of violating its copyright by appropriating the use of the "look and feel" of the Macintosh GUI, Xerox also sued Apple on the same grounds. The lawsuit was dismissed because Xerox had waited too long to file suit, and the statute of limitations had expired.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D91E38F937A15750C0A966958260|title=Most of Xerox's Suit Against Apple Barred|date=1990-03-24|publisher=[[The New York Times]]|accessdate=2008-12-01}}</ref>