00100	NOTES FOR THE NSF PROPOSAL ON HOME TERMINALS
00200	
00300	0. General plan
00400		The work for which we requesting support will consist of  two
00500	parts.   The first will be the development and testing of a number of
00600	home terminal applications.   This  will  involve  placing  terminals
00700	connected  to  the AI Lab's computer in selected places on campus and
00800	in selected homes.  The extent to which  the  applications  are  used
00900	will be monitored, and an attempt will be made to determine the price
01000	a current set of applications can command.
01100	
01200		The second area  of  work  will  be  in  supporting  computer
01300	science and engineering.
01400	
01500		A  long  range  goal  which  is  probably too ambitious to be
01600	realized in the time scale of this proposal is to create a collection
01700	of  services  for  which  there  would  be  a  substantial  number of
01800	customers at a price of $50 to $100 per month and to do the  computer
01900	work necessary for them to be offerable at such a price.
02000	
02100	
02200	
02300	1. Experimental applications.
02400		a. improved APE
02500		b. route finding
02600		c. reading
02700		d.  connection  to  at least one reservation system through a
02800	program that simulates an agent.
02900		e.  some start on the discussion system and journal.  We must
03000	mention Engelbart's work and discuss our different point of view.
03100		f. calculator
03200		g. local information system updated by clerk
03300	
03400	
03500	2. Qualifications of the lab.
03600	
03700	
03800	3. Starts. APE, reading program, find
03900			The  idea  of  a  home  terminal is fairly old in the
04000	Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and some of us have  had
04100	terminals at home for some time, at first teletypes and later display
04200	terminals.  The paper reproduced as Appendix A was presented in 1970.
04300	The  first  conclusion  stemming  from  our experience is that a bare
04400	terminal in the home connected to a time-sharing  system  is  of  use
04500	only  for  writing  and  debugging  programs.   Use in every day life
04600	requires an extensive collection of programs.
04700	
04800		The first non-programming activity for which we have used our
04900	terminals  extensively  is  writing  and  editing.    For this it was
     

05000	necessary to have input and output equipment that would handle  upper
05100	and  lower  case  without  special  setup, and this was a goal of our
05200	laboratory from the time we acquired our PDP-6 computer in 1966.   It
05300	also  requires  editing  programs that are easy to use.  When we were
05400	using teletypes for input and output, most people who had that option
05500	still  had  secretaries  make the final copies of their writings, but
05600	when we were able to put display terminals in offices,  there  was  a
05700	decisive  change.    Now  almost  all  but mathematicians write their
05800	papers directly into the computer.
05900	
06000	
06100	4. Relevant topics in computer science and engineering.
06200		a. a general purpose terminal
06300		b. standardizable set of display commands
06400		c. standardisable set of commands for human  interaction  and
06500	interaction with files. semantically specified.
06600		d. proposals for the national file system
06700		e. a standard commercial interface
06800		f. proposed standards for documents  in  arbitrary  character
06900	sets.
07000		g. a paper study of the  computer,  file,  and  communication
07100	requirements for cost-effective home terminals.
07200		h. universal time-sharing systems.
07300		i. dial-up communication conventions compatible with the ARPA
07400	network.
07500		j.  how to make the programs easy to learn to use and easy to
07600	maintain proficiency in.  This probably requires relatively  standard
07700	conventions  on how programs are controlled and an attempt to get the
07800	best advantages of short commands and mnemonics together with  really
07900	good  help facilities.  Our system shall not require six hours of use
08000	each quarter in order to maintain proficiency.
08100	
08200	The object of all these standardizability efforts is not to  get  the
08300	standards  accepted although if we are successful enough in designing
08400	them, they might be accepted.  All we really  propose  to  do  is  to
08500	study the problem from a no