hackertube.io

Leap Technology

aamoviebb · demo · Watch on YouTube

GUI, HCI & interface historyHistory of computing

What it is

A promotional video for Leap, the navigation technology invented by Jef Raskin, demonstrated on the Canon Cat computer around 1987. It shows keyboard-driven search and cursor positioning in place of a mouse.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN uses it as the visual reference for Leap keys and Raskin's interface ideas whenever jump-to-text navigation or command palettes come up.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “This is a fascinating view into Raskin's user interface concepts.”

    View of Raskin's user interface concepts in action

    fzzzy, 2016-09 · Recommendation · in “Restoring YC's Xerox Alto: how our boot disk was trashed with random data”

  2. “I just have to post this lovely scene from the original video separately.”

    A lovely scene from the original Canon Cat video

    marttt, 2020-01 · Recommendation · in “Leap Technology (keyboard vs. mouse on a Canon Cat machine, ca 1987)”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: jef raskin, canon cat, leap keys, user interface, text editing

Also recommended by the same people