I think it’s deeper than that. The public, and publishers,
and executives everywhere, have believed what the tekkies
told them. The package delivered by PARC (which I call
the PUI, or PARC user interface, and others call the
Modern GUI) turned the computer into a paper simulator
and “desktop” because
– Xerox was a paper-walloping company, could only think
in those terms
– the abstraction of “desktop” and “folders” was not for
the man in the street, as they claimed, but for Xerox
upper management, who were clueless (I have this confirmed)
– Bob Taylor, head of PARC, needed to please his bosses
– Taylor, long on organization but short on imagination,
accepted (and selected) what the lads presented him.

Chuck Simonyi (with Bravo, later called Microsoft Word)
and John Warnock (with Interpress, which became Adobe)
were only bricks in this facade.

However, I am still trying to find out why they kept point sizes–
wouldn’t you like to increase things by a percentage?
My suspicion is that Warnock wanted to make an alliance
with the type foundries to build his empire.

———-

Further recommended webwatching (1h30 at U of Oxford):
http://webcast.oii.ox.ac.uk/?view=Webcast&ID=20051121_112

cheers,
Matthias