Alan Kay Encyclopedia Article

Alan Kay

The following sections of this BookRags Literature Study Guide is offprint from Gale's For Students Series: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Commonly Studied Works: Introduction, Author Biography, Plot Summary, Characters, Themes, Style, Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism and Critical Essays, Media Adaptations, Topics for Further Study, Compare & Contrast, What Do I Read Next?, For Further Study, and Sources.

(c)1998-2002; (c)2002 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. Gale and Design and Thomson Learning are trademarks used herein under license.

The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction: "Social Concerns", "Thematic Overview", "Techniques", "Literary Precedents", "Key Questions", "Related Titles", "Adaptations", "Related Web Sites". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.

The following sections, if they exist, are offprint from Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults: "About the Author", "Overview", "Setting", "Literary Qualities", "Social Sensitivity", "Topics for Discussion", "Ideas for Reports and Papers". (c)1994-2005, by Walton Beacham.

All other sections in this Literature Study Guide are owned and copyrighted by BookRags, Inc.

Alan Kay

American computer scientist who helped develop a number of commonly used computer features, notably the graphical user interface (GUI) system. While working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Kay helped design GUI, the user-friendly graphics interface that utilized a "mouse" to point to "icons" and "windows" on the screen. This system became the standard graphical interface adopted by Macintosh and the Windows 95, 98, and NT operating systems. Kay also made important contributions toward developing the first laptop computer, and was primarily responsible for the Smalltalk computer language, an early object-oriented programming language.