NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Jef Raskin

Jef Raskin (March 9, 1943–February 26, 2005) was an American human-computer interface expert best-known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple Computer in the late 1970s. Image File history File links Jef Raskin, as captured by his son, Aza. ... Image File history File links Jef Raskin, as captured by his son, Aza. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (768x1024, 1277 KB) Summary Jef Raskin holding a model of the Canon Cat computer. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (768x1024, 1277 KB) Summary Jef Raskin holding a model of the Canon Cat computer. ... The Canon Cat was an innovative, task-dedicated, desktop computer released in 1987. ... is the 68th day of the year (69th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1943 (MCMXLIII) was a common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The user interface is the aggregate of means by which people (the users) interact with a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tool (the system). ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Apple Inc. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Early years and education

Raskin was born in New York City. He received degrees in mathematics (B.S. 1964) and philosophy (B.A. 1965) at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1967 he earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University. His first computer program, a music program, was part of his master's thesis. New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ... The State University of New York at Stony Brook (SUNYSB), also known as Stony Brook University (SBU) is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York (on the north side of Long Island, about 55 miles east of Manhattan, New York). ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate course of one or two years in duration. ... The Pennsylvania State University (commonly known as Penn State) is a state-related, land-grant university. ...

Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but stopped to teach art, photography and computer science there, working as an assistant professor from 1970 until 1974. He occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as Dr. Dobb's Journal. The University of California, San Diego (popularly known as UCSD, or sometimes UC San Diego) is a public, coeducational research university located in La Jolla, a seaside resort community of San Diego, California. ... Dr. Dobbs Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia with the subtitle Running Light without Overbyte was the full title of the pioneer microcomputer hobbyist newsletter published from early 1976 by Bob Albrecht and Dennis Allisons Peoples Computer Company. ...

Career at Apple

Raskin first met Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak following the debut of their Apple II personal computer at the First West Coast Computer Faire. Steve Jobs hired his firm, Bannister and Crun (which was named for two characters in the BBC radio comedy The Goon Show)^[1], to write the Apple II BASIC Programming Manual. In January 1978 Raskin joined Apple as manager of Publications, the company's 31st employee. For some time he continued as director of Publications and New Product Review, and also worked on packaging and other issues. Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. ... Stephan Gary Woz Wozniak (born August 11, 1950 in San Jose, California) is a U.S. computer engineer and the co-founder of Apple Computer (now Apple Inc. ... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... The West Coast Computer Faire was an annual computer industry conference and exposition most often associated with San Francisco, its first and most frequent venue. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GBÂ£4 billion. ... The Goon Show was a popular and influential British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ...

From his responsibility for documentation and testing, Raskin had great influence on early engineering projects. Because the Apple II only displayed uppercase characters on a 40-column screen, his department used the Polymorphic Systems 8813 ( an Intel-8080-based machine running CP/M), to write documentation; this spurred the development of an 80-column display card and a suitable text editor for the Apple II. His experiences testing Applesoft BASIC inspired him to design a competing product, called Notzo BASIC, which was never implemented. When Steve Wozniak developed the first disk drives for the Apple II, Raskin went back to his contacts at UCSD and encouraged them to port the UCSD P-System operating system to it, which Apple later licensed and shipped as Apple Pascal. For a few years, the Apple Pascal text-editor, running both on the Apple II and the Apple III, was used for editing manuals: the editor had a few nasty quirks, such as its segmentation scheme. Portions of the editor that were not running currently would be loaded in from a floppy disk when needed. Evidently, this was only possible if the right disk was in the right drive. Cases were known of a writer typing a number of pages of a manual and neglecting to save them until hours after they were written. When he tried to save the text, the program sought the disk file containing the code for the Save function. Since the disk containing this code had been removed and replaced by another containing the original version of the manual, or some other disk needed in the last few hours, the editor called for the file, failed to find it, and promptly crashed. The poor writer then tried to reconstruct the lost chapter from his own imperfect memory. These difficulties soon became historical footnotes when Apple started selling computers with hard disks, which had presumably infinite capacity (in fact 5 or 10 megabytes). (These crashes are now even more remote curiosities, because disk and memory sizes have increased by several orders of magnitude in the last few decades, and operating systems have become much more resistant to crashes of various kinds.) Applesoft BASIC was the second dialect of BASIC supplied on the Apple II computer, superseding Integer BASIC. Applesoft BASIC was supplied by Microsoft; Apple was looking for a new version of BASIC for the Apple II Plus computer with 48 KB of RAM, and after their success with Altair BASIC... The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... The Apple III, an early business machine predating the IBM PC The Apple III with an Apple Monitor //. The Apple III, or Apple /// as it was sometimes styled, was the first completely new computer designed by Apple. ...

Through this time Raskin continually wrote memos about how the personal computer could become a true consumer appliance (including an essay titled "Computers by the Millions") and how even the Apple II was too complex for nontechnical people. While the Apple III was under development, Raskin was lobbying for Apple to create a radically different kind of computer that was designed from the start to be easy to use.

He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple and began the Macintosh project in 1979. He also recruited Andy Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith from the Apple Service Department. The machine he envisioned was very different from the Macintosh that was eventually released and had much more in common with PDAs than modern GUI-based machines. The machine was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch black-and-white character display built into a small case with a floppy disk. A number of basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine also included logic that would understand user intentions and switch programs on the fly. For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user. Bill Atkinson worked at Apple Computer in the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Andy Hertzfeld (born April 6, 1953), was a key member of the original Apple Macintosh development team, and some would consider him a pioneer among software engineers. ... Burrell who worked at apple, and designed the digital board for the original Macintosh. ... User with PDA Personal digital assistants (PDAs) are handheld computers that were originally designed as personal organizers, but became much more versatile over the years. ... GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ... A floppy disk is a data storage device that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (floppy) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell. ...

In 1981 Steve Jobs, who had tried to cancel the Macintosh project no less than three times, was asked to stop interfering in the Apple Lisa project. He directed his attention to Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to marry the Xerox PARC-inspired GUI-based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance-computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept. Raskin takes credit for introducing Jobs and other Apple employees to the PARC concepts. (Other accounts say that Raskin's work on generally ergonomic and in particular graphical user interfaces predated even PARC and claim that it was the Macintosh project that promoted the GUI to Lisa, not the other way around. There are many versions of the story—reader beware.) Raskin also claims to have had continued direct input into the eventual Mac design, including the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC's 3-button mouse. Others, including Larry Tesler, acknowledge his advocacy for a one-button mouse but say that it was a decision reached simultaneously by others at Apple who had a stronger say on the issue. Raskin later stated that were he to redesign the mouse it would have three clearly labelled button—two buttons on top marked "Select" and "Activate," and a "Grab" button on the side that could be used by squeezing the mouse. (This description nearly fits the Apple Mighty Mouse, which is available now. It has the three described buttons (two invisible), but they are assigned to different functions than Raskin specified for his own idiosyncratic interface.) Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. ... The Apple Lisa was a revolutionary personal computer designed at Apple Computer during the early 1980s. ... Bold text // Headline text Link title This article is about the computer research center. ... Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ... Bold text // Headline text Link title This article is about the computer research center. ... Lawrence G. (Larry) Tesler (born April 24, 1945) is a computer scientist working in the field of human-computer interaction. ...

Pioneering the information appliance

Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, Inc., through which he implemented his original concepts for the Macintosh. The first product was the SwyftCard, an integrated application suite on a firmware card for the Apple II, also released on disk as SwyftWare. Information Appliance later shipped the Swyft as a stand-alone laptop computer. Raskin licensed this design to Canon, which shipped a similar product as the Canon Cat. Released in 1987, the unit had an innovative interface that attracted much interest but it did not become a commercial success. Raskin claimed that its failure was due in some part to Steve Jobs, who successfully pitched Canon on the NeXT Computer at about the same time. It has also been suggested that Canon canceled the Cat due to internal rivalries within its divisions. The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ... Canon Inc. ... The Canon Cat was an innovative, task-dedicated, desktop computer released in 1987. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... The NeXT logo, designed by Paul Rand. ...

Raskin also wrote a book, The Humane Interface, in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces. In computers, The Humane Environment (THE) is a program whose purpose is to demonstrate an apparently unprecedented style of graphical user interface. ...

Raskin was a long-time member of BAYCHI, the Bay-Area Computer-Human Interface group, a professional organization for human-interface designers. He presented papers on his own work, reviewed the human interfaces of various consumer products (such as a BMW car he'd bought, which turned out to be less intelligent than its designers had imagined), and discussed the work of his colleagues in various companies and universities. For other uses, see BMW (disambiguation). ...

At the start of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of a new computer interface based on his 30 years of work and research, called The Humane Environment, THE. On January 1, 2005, he renamed it Archy. It is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using open source elements within his rendition of a ZUI or Zooming User Interface. In the same period Raskin accepted an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago's Computer Science Department and, with Leo Irakliotis, started designing a new curriculum on humane interfaces and computer enterprises. is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Archy is a proposed radically new system for interacting with many kinds of computers. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Example of a ZUI In computing, a Zooming User Interface or ZUI is a graphic environment that allows users to interact with system objects. ... The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... Leo Irakliotis is a computer scientist at the University of Chicago. ...

His work is being extended and carried on by his son Aza Raskin at Humanized, a company that was started shortly after Raskin's death to continue his legacy. Recently, Humanized released a product called Enso which is based on Raskin's work. Enso is dedicated to Raskin's memory. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Chart of ocean surface temperature anomaly [Â°C] during the last strong El NiÃ±o in December 1997 ENSO (El NiÃ±o-Southern Oscillation) is a global coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon. ...

Outside interests

While best-known as a computer scientist, Raskin also had other interests. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and played various instruments, including the organ and the recorder. His artwork was displayed at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He received a patent for airplane wing construction^[2], and designed and marketed radio controlled model gliders. He was said to be an accomplished archer, target shooter and an occasional model race car driver. He was a passionate musician and composer, publishing a series of collected recorder studies using the pseudonym of Aabel Aabius. In his later years he also wrote free-lance articles for Macintosh magazines, such as MacHomeJournal as well as many modeling magazines, Forbes, Wired and computing journals. Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany The organ is a keyboard instrument played using one or more manuals and a pedalboard. ... Various recorders The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes â€” whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle and ocarina. ... View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi. ... It has been suggested that Primitive Archery be merged into this article or section. ...

Raskin owned a small company, Jef's Friends, which made and sold model-airplane kits through hobby shops. Somehow, he managed to turn most of his hobbies into profitable businesses.

One of Raskin's instruments was the organ. At his home he played an "army field organ," a portable reed organ designed for military chaplains, and he once bought a pipe organ from a convent in Belmont. Following the lead of Stanford computer scientist Donald Knuth. who had designed his house around his own pipe organ, he designed a house in Brisbane (California) to contain the organ, but the building project failed due to lack of a thorough soil analysis. The house collapsed, and the project dissolved in a flurry of litigation. Then, Raskin accepted the job at Apple Computer. He persuaded Steve Jobs to reserve space in one of Apple's new buildings, "Bandley 3," for the organ to be installed and actually played. After some months, the convent asked Raskin when he actually wanted to haul the organ away. When this plan also fell through, Raskin traveled to the convent with a San Jose Mercury News reporter to inspect the organ. Raskin, the reporter, and several Publications department employees trooped through the nuns' dormitory to reach the organ loft above the convent chapel. One employee, a soprano, tested the chapel's acoustics by singing Schubert's Ave Maria, and a few days later an article appeared describing the dilemma of a computer executive who owned a pipe organ and had no place to put it. A local church offered to buy the organ, at a modest loss, and the convent was able to install their new pipe organ. Curiously, a few years later, Raskin had a house big enough. On the day of Apple's IPO, Raskin bought a hilltop lot on Montebello Road with a small house on it, then sold his current house in the Cupertino flatlands. He built a much larger house, with an attached concert hall, whose acoustics had been designed by Bolt, Beranek and Newman. This hall was used for a variety of purposes, ranging from chamber-music concerts to vacation slide shows. Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... Donald Ervin Knuth ( or Ka-NOOTH[1], Chinese: [2]) (b. ... Apple Inc. ... Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. ... The Mercs sections vary by day of the week, but Business, Sports, and The Valley are standard daily fare. ... For the crater on the moon, see Schubert (crater) Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828), was an Austrian composer. ... Ave Maria (Latin: Hail, Maria or Hail, Mary) may refer to: Hail Mary, a traditional Catholic and Eastern Orthodox prayer calling for the intercession of Mary, the mother of Jesus A musical rendition of the Ave Maria prayer by Gounod (set to Prelude #1 from Well-Tempered Clavier). ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... Cali Mill Plaza (Cupertino City Center) is located on the intersection of Stevens Creek and De Anza Boulevards where the village of Westwood was established. ... A Concert hall is a cultural building, which serves as performance venue, chiefly for classical instrumental music. ... BBN Technologies (originally Bolt Beranek and Newman) is a high technology company that provides research and development services. ...

Personal life and later years

Jef Raskin married Linda S. Blum in 1982. They had three children together - Aza, Aviva, and Aenea. Other younger persons who spent significant time in the Raskin household and were as close to family as one can be without actually being genetically related included Jenna Mandis and Rebecca Fureigh.

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2004 and died in Pacifica, California on February 26, 2005, at age 61. Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumour within the pancreatic gland. ... Aerial view of the Linda Mar (San Pedro Valley) neighborhood of Pacifica, Calfornia. ... is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Contents

Early years and education

Career at Apple

Pioneering the information appliance

Outside interests

Personal life and later years

See also

References

External links

Contents

Early years and education GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Career at Apple

Pioneering the information appliance

Outside interests

Personal life and later years

See also

References

External links

Early years and education