乔布斯传 第86期:抢劫施乐的创意

 Xerox¹ PARC

施乐PARC

The Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Center, known as Xerox PARC, had been established in 1970 to create a spawning² ground for digital ideas.

施乐公司的帕洛奥图研究中心--常被叫做“施乐PARC”--成立于1970年，目的是为数字领域的创想提供成长环境。

It was safely located, for better and for worse, three thousand miles from the commercial pressures of Xerox corporate³ headquarters in Connecticut.

这里距离康涅狄格州的施乐公司总部3000英里，无论是好是坏，都脱离了那里的商业压力。

Among its visionaries was the scientist Alan Kay, who had two great maxims⁴ that Jobs embraced:

工作在这里的诸多梦想家中，有一位叫做艾伦·凯的科学家，他的两句格言深得乔布斯认同：

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it" and "People who are serious about software should make their own hardware."

“预见未来最好的方式就是亲手创造未来”以及“对待软件严肃认真的人，应该制造自己专属的硬件”。

Kay pushed the vision of a small personal computer, dubbed⁵ the "Dynabook," that would be easy enough for children to use.

凯推出了小型个人电脑的理念，他称之为“动态笔记本”，使用简便，即便是小孩子也能轻松操作。

So Xerox PARC's engineers began to develop user-friendly graphics⁶ that could replace all of the command lines and DOS prompts that made computer screens intimidating⁷.

于是，施乐PARC的工程师们开始研发友好的用户图形界面，以取代电脑屏幕上那些拒人于千里之外的命令行和DOS提示符。

The metaphor⁸ they came up with was that of a desktop⁹.

他们想到，可以把桌面的概念应用到屏幕上。

The screen could have many documents and folders¹⁰ on it, and you could use a mouse to point and click on the one you wanted to use.

屏幕上会有很多文件和文件夹，用户可以使用鼠标指向并点击自己想要使用的内容。

This graphical user interface—or GUI, pronounced "gooey"—was facilitated by another concept pioneered at Xerox PARC: bitmapping.

图形用户界面--也就是GUI--的发展，也受到了当时施乐PARC另一个先锋概念“位图显示”的推动。

Until then, most computers were character-based.

那个时候，大多数电脑还是基于字符的。

You would type a character on a keyboard, and the computer would generate that character on the screen, usually in glowing greenish phosphor against a dark background.

你在键盘上输入一个字符，计算机就会在屏幕上显示那个字符，通常是荧光绿色的字符衬上深色的背景。

Since there were a limited number of letters, numerals, and symbols, it didn't take a whole lot of computer code or processing power to accomplish this.

因为字母、数字、符号的数量是有限的，所以这样的显示方式并不需要大量的电脑代码或是很强的处理器性能。

In a bitmap system, on the other hand, each and every pixel on the screen is controlled by bits in the computer's memory.

位图显示则相反，屏幕上的每一个像素都是由电脑内存控制的。

To render something on the screen, such as a letter, the computer has to tell each pixel to be light or dark or, in the case of color displays, what color to be.

要在屏幕上显示某些内容--比如一个字母--电脑就要控制每个像素的明暗，如果是彩色显示的话，则要控制每个像素的颜色。

This uses a lot of computing¹¹ power, but it permits gorgeous graphics, fonts, and gee-whiz screen displays.

这会占用大量的系统资源，但是能够支持炫丽的图像、字体和惊人的显本效果。

Bitmapping and graphical interfaces¹² became features of Xerox PARC's prototype computers, such as the Alto, and its object-oriented programming language, Smalltalk.

位图显示和图形界面成为了施乐PARC开发的电脑样机（比如“奥图”电脑）和面向对象的编程语言Smalltalk的特性。

Jef Raskin decided¹³ that these features were the future of computing.

杰夫·拉斯金认为，这些特性是电脑产业的未来。

So he began urging Jobs and other Apple colleagues to go check out Xerox PARC.

于是他开始催促乔布斯和苹果的其他同事去施乐PARC考察一番。

1 xerox   

n./v.施乐复印机，静电复印

参考例句：

• Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
• You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家，但可以复印。

2 spawning   

产卵

参考例句：

• Encounter sites have a small chance of spawning a "Commander" NPC. 遭遇战地区有很小的几率遇到NPC指挥官。
• Instantly revives your Champion at your Spawning Pool, 9 minute cooldown. 立即在出生地复活你的英雄，冷却时间9分钟。

3 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

4 maxims   

n.格言，座右铭( maxim的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Courts also draw freely on traditional maxims of construction. 法院也自由吸收传统的解释准则。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• There are variant formulations of some of the maxims. 有些准则有多种表达方式。 来自辞典例句

5 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

7 intimidating   

vt.恐吓，威胁( intimidate的现在分词)

参考例句：

• They were accused of intimidating people into voting for them. 他们被控胁迫选民投他们的票。
• This kind of questioning can be very intimidating to children. 这种问话的方式可能让孩子们非常害怕。

8 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

9 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

10 folders   

n.文件夹( folder的名词复数 )；纸夹；（某些计算机系统中的）文件夹；页面叠

参考例句：

• Encrypt and compress individual files and folders. The program is compact, efficient and user friendly. 加密和压缩的个人档案和folders.the计划是紧凑，高效和用户友好。 来自互联网
• By insertion of photocopies,all folders can be maintained complete with little extra effort. 插入它的复制本，不费多大力量就能使所有文件夹保持完整。 来自辞典例句

11 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

12 interfaces   

界面( interface的名词复数 )； 接口（连接两装置的电路，可使数据从一种代码转换成另一种代码）； 交界； 联系

参考例句：

• If the class needs to be reprogrammed, new interfaces are created. 如果class需要重新程序设计，新的interfaces创建。
• Interfaces solve this problem of evolving code. Interfaces解决了代码升级的问题。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。