More Medusa history

[MikeCauser]

Here is some more Medusa history.

Originally the commands to the program were typed in, but to make them easier to remember -- and look better -- they could be selected from a paper menu taped onto an A3-sized digitiser. Here is the first version of the menu from 1981: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/11480950216/

Medusa was an expensive program from the start, and the workstation came with specially made tables and a mount for the command tablet. Here is the second generation furniture and Westward raster monochrome display from around 1984: http://www.flickr.com/photos/54731504@N04/11480948636/

The rapidly increasing range of functions and modules for Medusa meant that the menu as one sheet could not hold any reasonable sub-set, so for tablet use the "book menus" were developed. These had a part that was static and a part that could be changed on the fly. Here is an early generation of C.I.S. book menu in use at a customer site: http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/inf ... erview.htm
The graphics are now in colour, and the date is 1986.



Mike

[nananaj]

thanks for this piece of history very nice.