Computer graphics · 1963 · Ivan E. Sutherland
Sketchpad: A Man-Machine Graphical Communication System
Combine direct manipulation, reusable master-instance objects, geometric constraints, hierarchy, and visual interaction into a computational medium.
The central move
Combine direct manipulation, reusable master-instance objects, geometric constraints, hierarchy, and visual interaction into a computational medium.
Why it had to exist
Computers largely accepted textual or numeric batches. Creating and revising spatial structures required an interface that treated geometry as live, constrained data.
Where it leads
Graphical objects → CAD and GUIs → object models → interactive visual programming.