Got me down a rabbit hole, Jeff.
Looked up the "first film" Ted talked about, and now wonder if the classroom
scene from Ferris Bueller wasn't lifted from it.
https://youtu.be/rFgul6rwNbQ?t=1177

I hope the URLs weren't munged by the cut-and-paste

1)
https://spectrum.ieee.org/video/geek-life/profiles/extended-directors-cut-ted-nelson-on-what-modern-programmers-can-learn-from-the-past

Extended Director's Cut:
Ted Nelson on What Modern Programmers Can Learn From the Past

The inventor of hypertext talks about the birth of personal computing,
the web, and how to think beyond the currently possible

Editors Note: Due to popular demand,
we're releasing this extended version of our interview with Ted Nelson,
in which he talks about the work of Douglas Englebart,
and in more detail about the origins of Xanadu, and how he views
programs as art.

… Back in the summer of 2016,
Nelson was a keynote speaker at Vintage Computing Festival East in New Jersey
and IEEE Spectrum had the chance to interview him off-stage.


2) computer history as of 1978

https://ia802603.us.archive.org/28/items/byte-magazine-1978-07-rescan/1978_07_BYTE_03-07_How_To_Get_Your_Tarbell_Going.pdf

July 1978 Byte:

pg 48: ANTIQUE MECHANICAL COMPUTERS, Part 1: Early Automata History-Williams

pg 64: The First Ten Years of Amateur Computing, by Sol Libes

pg 84: A SHORT HISTORY OF COMPUTING History-Reid-Green

pg 124: HOW TO CHOOSE A MICROPROCESSOR Architecture-Frenzel


3) compatibility is good, incompatibility is okay too

The "how to choose a microprocessor" article noted that the Z80
succeeded by being 8008/8080 code compatible, thus capitalizing on the
pre-existing code base.
Being "PC compatible" was essential for years,
thus the intel/AMD duopoly and the reason the intel Itanium failed.

But ARM started to erode that, and now Apple Silicon:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/consumer-electronics/gadgets/the-mac-is-selling-like-never-before-thanks-to-the-m1-chip

The Mac Is Selling Like Never Before Thanks to the M1 Chip
Apple's homegrown chip fulfills Steve Jobs'
whole widget design philosophy