

Jef Raskin: Holes in the Histories - jpablo
http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/writings/holes.html

======
zppx
The Halo effect sadly is still the current state in which much people treats
Apple, I would love to know who are the engineers that design and write the
features of the operating system that I use everyday, suggest some new
features to them, etc., and I hate keynotes.

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jpablo
More footage here:

[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt&showcomments=1)

Don't miss the comments at the bottom with some comments from Raskin himself.

Also check
[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&s...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=I_Invented_Burrell.txt&showcomments=1)
(and comments).

~~~
astrange
By the way, the folklore.org book is also inaccurate; I seem to remember it
including some of the website comments, but not any from Jef, and some of them
were important. Can't remember any of them offhand, though.

And, of course, the bio section didn't mention that he'd died before the book
came out.

------
vidar
As the old saying goes: "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story".

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necrecious
History is pop culture.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume_the_Position_with_Mr._Wu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assume_the_Position_with_Mr._Wuhl)

------
amichail
Jef Raskin stood out as someone who wanted to take far more credit than he
deserved. Much worse than Wolfram in that regard.

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emmett
The "true histories of great startups" would make an amazing series.

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balding_n_tired
He invented Burrell, no?

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ahoyhere
From his own chapter notes from, apparently, 1981:

> ... Having been associated with PARC, I repeated called Apple's attention to
> the kind of thinking going on there, and it was gratifying that the company
> took note of and based a lot of the LISA software on the published work done
> at PARC.

[http://www.digibarn.com/collections/business-docs/raskin-
mac...](http://www.digibarn.com/collections/business-docs/raskin-mac-
genesis/raskin-mac-genesis-1981.pdf)

Then he proceeds to describe his plans for the Macintosh word processor, which
includes magical spread sheets, a calendar, and the ability to dial stuff.
Which, of course, never saw the light of day - MacWrite is entirely opposite
of what he describes. He also said that multi-moded tools are too complex, and
doesn't mention anything about a desktop metaphor, icons, folders -- and he
pans the mouse universally.

So, I honestly don't know whether I believe his account at all. I read his
book Humane Interface cover-to-cover, and I simply can't imagine a person with
his ideas had as much to do with the Mac design as he claims.

In HI, he seemed to claim the Canon Cat as his proudest accomplishment. A
modal word processor machine, with no mouse, and a rather complex and arcane
(if you ask me) system of changing operation modes with multi-function keys.

There's more on <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin>

Here's a description of the LEAP functionality of his Archy interface, which
seems to replicate what the Canon Cat did --
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leaping_in_the_Archy_inter...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leaping_in_the_Archy_interface.png)

Given the content of his writing, and the nature of his ideas, I have never
understood why people in the industry think of him as some patron saint of
usability.

