Editing Dynabook (section)

== Original concept ==
[[File:Alan Kay and the prototype of Dynabook, pt. 5 (3010032738).jpg|thumb|Alan Kay holding the mockup of Dynabook, 2008]]
Describing the idea as "A Personal Computer For Children of All Ages", Kay wanted the Dynabook concept to embody the learning theories of [[Jerome Bruner]] and some of what [[Seymour Papert]]&mdash; who had studied with developmental psychologist [[Jean Piaget]] and who was one of the inventors of the [[Logo programming language]] &mdash; was proposing. This concept was created two years before the founding of [[Xerox PARC]]. The ideas led to the development of the [[Xerox Alto]] prototype, which was originally called "the interim Dynabook".<ref>{{Citation|title= Computer History Museum|url= http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1221864610|contribution= 40th Anniversary of the Dynabook|access-date= 2008-11-04|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20081108034256/http://www.computerhistory.org/events/index.php?id=1221864610|archive-date= 2008-11-08|url-status= dead}}.</ref><ref name="Laptop">{{Citation|title=The Laptop Celebrates 40 Years |date= Nov 2008|url= http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/11/museum-celebrat.html|newspaper=Wired}}.</ref><ref name="Personal Dynamic Media2">{{cite journal|last2= Goldberg |first2=Adele|date= March 1977|title= Personal Dynamic Media | journal=Computer | volume=10 | issue= 3 | pages=31–41 | doi = 10.1109/c-m.1977.217672 | last1 = Kay | first1=Alan C. | s2cid=15070347}}</ref>  It embodied all the elements of a graphical user interface, or [[Graphical user interface|GUI]], as early as 1972. The software component of this research was [[Smalltalk]], which went on to have a life of its own independent of the Dynabook concept.

The hardware on which the programming environment ran was relatively irrelevant.

At the same time, Kay tried in his 1972 article to identify existing hardware components that could be used in a Dynabook, including screens, processors and storage memory. For example:
{{Blockquote | A standalone 'smart terminal' that uses one of these chips for a processor (and includes memory, a keyboard, a display and two cassettes) is now on the market for about $6000.<ref name="Kay,1972"/>}}

The Dynabook vision was most fully laid out in Kay’s 1977 article "Personal Dynamic Media", co-authored with collaborator (and [[Smalltalk]] co-inventor) [[Adele Goldberg (computer scientist)|Adele Goldberg]].<ref name= "Personal Dynamic Media2"/>

In 2019, Kay gave a detailed answer to a question on [[Quora]], about the origins of the Dynabook concept.<ref name= "KayQuora">{{cite web | last1=Kay | first1=Alan | title=Alan Kay's answer to American computer pioneer Alan Kay's concept, the Dynabook, was published in 1972. How come Steve Jobs and Apple iPad get the credit for tablet invention? | url= https://www.quora.com/American-computer-pioneer-Alan-Kay-s-concept-the-Dynabook-was-published-in-1972-How-come-Steve-Jobs-and-Apple-iPad-get-the-credit-for-tablet-invention/answer/Alan-Kay-11 | website = [[Quora]] | accessdate=21 April 2019}}</ref>