Yes, that is a good link to some of Englebart’s research on NLS. Some of his researchers became restive and were hired by the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and they brought the mouse concept with them from their experrience with NLS. The Xerox 860IPS CAT pointing device may be seen as a takoff of the prior joystick concept, while the mouse provided more flexibility.
Joysticks used as a visual pointing deevice has been in very long use. See for example the joysticks on the control panel of the spaceship in the movie “When Worlds Collide.” During the Second World War German, British, and American armed forces used the joystick as a control and pointing device in many applications. A number of Allied warships were sunk by German guided missiles using television with a joystick to guide the missile to the targeted warship.
In the movie “Things to Come (1936)” there is a futuristic scene wherein the man is using a device on his Lucite desktop which serves a a monitor and a televised video monitor. The only control appears to be a circle on its front, which he manipulates to control the device. Is this perhaps a touchpad-mouselike control?
When talking about pointing devices, let’s not forget the graphics tablet and its 1888 ancestor, the Telautograph. I was using the Telautograph in the Air Force in 1972, and the Summagraphics graphics tablet in 1978.
Englebart’s NLS team also are noteworthy for their contribution to the early experiments with hypertext.
WX, thanks for some good info.