Unveiling of Display on “Computer Graphics in 1984”

You may have missed this and have you haven't visited our Computer History Displays recently then perhaps you should return. On 25th August our Computer Science Department inaugurated the latest addition to its Computer History Displays - the new display in the 5th-floor lobby being devoted to computers & graphics. The main items in the new display are Computer Aided Design machines preserved by our Engineering Faculty, - a Tektronix 40xx terminal, an IBM 5080 CAD display and its replacement, an IBM RS6000, and a large plotter. The display was unveiled by Professor Gordon Mallinson from the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 
   Although most of the equipment is for CAD, the display panel draws on the fact that the 5080 was installed in 1984 to highlight that year as being a turning point in computing history, as it saw the introduction of graphical computer interfaces with the Apple Macintosh. This was the first time that a WIMPs system (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer) was available to the general public, although “clunky” by today’s standards. This was also the beginning of user-defined fonts, leading to the plethora of brilliant designs available today, such as the font McCahon by Luke Wood of Canterbury University: