I was just browsing mac dev centre and noticed a posting that Jef Raskin has passed away. Haven't confirmed it from a second sourse yet, but this sounds like a sad day for Mac and UI fans.
My primary role in this matter was to create the Macintosh project. I named it for my favorite kind of eatin' apple, the succulent McIntosh (I changed the spelling of the name to avoid potential conflict with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer).
Quote:
While I was the first PARC-savvy person at Apple, Larry Tesler was the first PARC employee to join the company. At first he was strongly opposed to the Mac's easier-to-use mouse methods, and I eventually wrote a memo that showed, point by point, that the one-button mouse could do everything that PARCs three-button mouse could do and with the same number or fewer user actions. It was faster and more efficient, and much easier to learn and remember how to use. I had observed that people (including myself) at PARC often made wrong-button errors in using the mouse, which was part of my impetus for doing better.
Lots of very interesting things to read about this guy.
He will be missed.
From his webpage:
(Jef's haircut by Adobe Photoshop. Jef found it much easier to trim his hair and beard on the computer than in a mirror.)
According to this MercuryNews article, they did speak quite recently:
Jobs, who himself had surgery last summer for a different, less deadly form of pancreatic cancer, e-mailed and spoke to Raskin in the past few months after his diagnosis, the Raskin family said. Neither Jobs nor Apple could be reached for comment Sunday.
Does seem strange that Apple wouldn't at least recognize him. I know they had something up on their site a while back (3-4 months ago??) but cannot remember for whom.
Comments
From lung cancer at 61.
My primary role in this matter was to create the Macintosh project. I named it for my favorite kind of eatin' apple, the succulent McIntosh (I changed the spelling of the name to avoid potential conflict with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer).
While I was the first PARC-savvy person at Apple, Larry Tesler was the first PARC employee to join the company. At first he was strongly opposed to the Mac's easier-to-use mouse methods, and I eventually wrote a memo that showed, point by point, that the one-button mouse could do everything that PARCs three-button mouse could do and with the same number or fewer user actions. It was faster and more efficient, and much easier to learn and remember how to use. I had observed that people (including myself) at PARC often made wrong-button errors in using the mouse, which was part of my impetus for doing better.
Lots of very interesting things to read about this guy.
He will be missed.
From his webpage:
(Jef's haircut by Adobe Photoshop. Jef found it much easier to trim his hair and beard on the computer than in a mirror.)
I understand that Jobs and Raskin probably aren't close, but events like these should transcend that sort of thing.
Jobs, who himself had surgery last summer for a different, less deadly form of pancreatic cancer, e-mailed and spoke to Raskin in the past few months after his diagnosis, the Raskin family said. Neither Jobs nor Apple could be reached for comment Sunday.
Does seem strange that Apple wouldn't at least recognize him. I know they had something up on their site a while back (3-4 months ago??) but cannot remember for whom.