THE VIDEO SHELF · early graphical programming
Alan Kay Demos GRaIL
Alan Kay demonstrates GRaIL, a graphical input language system from around 1968 in which hand-drawn strokes become boxes, connections and dataflow-style programs.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN points to it as proof that the 1960s already had modeless, sketch-based interfaces that remain impressive today.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- Vincent Gable
- Topic
- early graphical programming
- Format
- demo
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 2
- HN mentions in dataset
- 6
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2016–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
Man, I love these old demos. And I haven't seen this one before. I now understand much better what Alan Kay meant when he said: I felt like sticking my hands right through the display and actually touching the information structures directly. This is the …
some-mthfka on Hacker News · 2023-01
In Emacs Is Not EnoughThis line of thinking goes back even further. Back to 1968 when GRAIL was developed: [VIDEO] Pretty amazing stuff, even today.
colllectorof on Hacker News · 2017-11
In Magic Paper
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.