Did Engelbart invent the mouse alone?
No, that is a common oversimplification. While I did conceive the mouse in 1963 as a pointing device for my oNLine System (NLS), its development was a collaborative effort with my team at the Stanford Research Institute. My colleague Bill English built the first prototype—a wooden shell with a single button and two metal wheels. The mouse was never my primary focus; it was just one input device among many in my larger augmentation system. I also developed chord keys, a five-key device for one-handed input, and experimented with foot pedals. The mouse became iconic, but it was always part of a holistic approach to human-computer interaction.
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