> The Lisa end user experience wasn't that different from the Xerox Alto.
The Alto had a command line interface. The Lisa had a standard GUI.
Some of the programs you ran on an Alto implemented their own custom GUI, but each program was free to follow it's own GUI conventions. There was no standard.
The two systems really were very different.
You can still find copies of the Alto User Handbook online so you can read about how it worked.
That was true, but you really didn't spend a lot of time on the command line. It wasn't like Unix. People didn't spend their time inventing options for their command lines; they sunk it into the GUI instead.
The Alto had a command line interface. The Lisa had a standard GUI.
Some of the programs you ran on an Alto implemented their own custom GUI, but each program was free to follow it's own GUI conventions. There was no standard.
The two systems really were very different.
You can still find copies of the Alto User Handbook online so you can read about how it worked.
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/xerox/alto/Alto_Users_Handbook_...