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Passing of a Pioneer - Macintosh Innovator Jef Raskin Dies Aged 61

Posted by Matthew Brodsky

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Jef Raskin was probably best known for inventing the "click and drag" interface, currently used by millions of laptop users every day. Raskin's simple philosophy was the foundation of his success. He believed in placing the person before the PC, an ethos that inspired the next generation of computer programmers.

He was known as employee 31 back then. It was 1979, and Apple Computer was just beginning its quest to remake technology culture. Jef Raskin quickly proved to be a zealot in this mission. He launched the Macintosh project that generated the first seismic shifts of the computing world. Raskin died on February 26, 2005, at age 61 of pancreatic cancer.

Best known possibly for inventing the "click and drag" interface that's taken for granted on millions of computers each day, his impact may prove far more reaching. Raskin believed in placing the person before the PC - designing from the interface in, and he tried to spread this gospel to the next generation of programmers and designers.

Raskin began exploring his unique vision of technology as a college student in the early 1960s at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he earned dual undergraduate degrees in mathematic and philosophy. By 1967, he earned his master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University and wrote his first computer program. He then devoted a good part of the 1970s to teaching computer science, art, and philosophy at University of California at San Diego.

Apple Computers hired him in January 1978. As with most new employees, he was tasked with more mundane responsibilities, such as packaging, publications, and reviewing new products. Raskin, however, saw the opportunity to explore the relationship between computers and the mind, between the left and right side of the brain.

The Macintosh program was this chance. After barraging colleagues with memos about how computers should actually be easy to use, Raskin was allowed to make his rants a reality in 1979. He named the project after his favorite apple. With the assistance of a former UC San Diego student, Bill Atkinson, Raskin conceptualized a small, PDA-like system with a 9-inch black-and-white display and the power of the Apple II. Key to this Macintosh prototype was its intuitive interface. The machine could sense its user's needs and intentions, and would switch from among its several built-in applications without command.

In 1981, Steve Jobs involved himself in Macintosh. Jobs had previously devoted his attention to Apple's Lisa project, but had been asked to cease and desist with his interference. When Jobs subsequently dove into Macintosh, the details of the how Jobs and Raskin interfaced are fuzzy. Questions mount over who created what. However, what incontrovertibly happened is that Macintosh changed. It became what it eventually was sold as: a graphic-interface-based, Lisa-like computer.

Another certain fact is that Raskin left Apple in 1982. He formed his own company, Information Appliance, where he could design with his original innovation in mind: computers should work for their users. The firm produced the SWYFT firmware card, an integrated application suite that was used in the Apple II. Information Appliance also based a stand-alone laptop on the technology, which would become the Cannon Cat in 1987. The Cat possessed the typical interface innovation of a Raskin machine. Nevertheless, it had limited market success.

Raskin devoted much of the next decade to studying cognitive psychology in an attempt to codify his life's work. The interface of man and machine had previously been the work of science fiction writers. Raskin sought to make it a science, which he called cognetics.

The work culminated in 2000 in the publication of a book, The Human Interface, and the creation of a think tank of sorts, the Raskin Center for Humane Interfaces (RCHI). The concept of cognetics, and the book, are now standard reading for more than 100 computer science courses across the planet.

Through the RCHI, Raskin also began what would be his final project. Originally dubbed The Humane Environment and later renamed Archy, the operating program blends open source with a form of Zooming User Interface. It promises to revolutionize computing and truly elevate interface to the utopian plane to which Raskin aspired. No wonder he worked up until his death to complete the code for Archy. The work will continue at RCHI under the auspices of his son, Aza.

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