The Digibarn Computer Museum reports that Jef Raskin, human-computer interface expert who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer died on Saturday, February 26th, 2005. Raskin was born March 9, 1943.
David Warlick, in his Digital Divide Network blog, reports that Raskin, who named the Macintosh after his personal favorite fruit, died of cancer.
“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).” – Jef Raskin, April 11, 1996
Jef Raskin was the human-computer interface expert who began the Macintosh project for Apple Computer and was the author of The Humane Interface, which in large part builds on his earlier work with the Canon Cat. Raskin received a B.S. Mathematics and B.A. in Philosophy from the State University of New York and an M.S. in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University. As an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), he taught classes ranging from computer science to photography.
Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as the 31st employee. He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple, and began the Macintosh project. He was credited with the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, a departure from the Xerox PARC standard of a three-button mouse. He has since stated that were he to redesign the interface, he would have used a two button mouse.
At the beginning of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of The Humane Environment (THE). THE 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. (source: Wikipedia.com)
More about Jef Raskin here.
[Attribution: O’Grady’s Power Page]
MacDailyNews Take: Raskin was truly a very interesting modern-day Renaissance man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.
Excerpt from an interview with Jef Raskin by Ubiquity.
(http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/ubiquity.html)
UBIQUITY: Have you written a book on your experiences there [at Apple]?
RASKIN: Well, it hasn’t seen the light of day, and won’t until I finish the more technical books I am currently writing. It’s called “The Mac and Me.”
UBIQUITY: Does it have a story? A moral?
RASKIN: It the story of how I came to have enough information in my head to design such a thing (and of the many people who guided me), and how I came to learn to put human needs ahead of technical concerns. It’s about the things that gave a strong humanitarian and altruistic direction to my life and a lack of interest in making money for its own sake. My parents were a great inspiration; in the 1950s they risked their livelihoods to defend racial equality — this was before Martin Luther King’s prominence and the famous civil rights movement. They achieved some of their goals for our town, but we were boycotted by the white community, lost our family business, and had to move a step down from the middle class. But there was no iota of regret in our household, the moral victory was ours and I have the additional satisfaction that the equality we joined the fight to achieve, if not complete, is far greater today than it was then.
Sad to hear that Jef died (from pancreatic cancer)-he was one of the people behind the orginal Mac.
Thanks for everything, Jef!
From “the rest of us”…
A.A. where did you find out that Jeff had pancreatic cancer?
This is total irony. Steve Jobs (fortunately) gets a rare form of pancreatic that can be cured if found earlier enough. Jeff Raskin (sadly) gets the more common form of pancreatic cancer that is eventually fatal.
God bless you Jeff.
What is even more amazing than the machine the original Mac was, is the incredible pool of talented and insightful people who crashed into each other and produced such an amazing work. Jeff Raskin was only one part, albeit a large one, of an amazing group that gave us the Mac.
A great mind that is finally at rest. The big question is who will come along and follow in his footsteps.
Thank you Mr. Raskin. (I always liked the way “Raskin” sounds like “rascal”.) I didn’t know he hired Bill Atkinson. A former student. The quality of the teacher is reflected in his students (and who he chooses as employees.) The reason I can do a lot w/this machine (and perhaps the intricate thing that con be done with Newton and a SCREENLESS iPod) is in the ideas and passion he brought with him. Think Different indeed.
Weird. I posted on some other board this weekend about how frustrating ALL versions of M$Word are to work with compared to true Mac designed WPs. Think I quoted something of his from Whole Earth Software Catalog 2.0. Something like “You should be able to see your work, not the interface.” MacWrite and others like WriteNow accomplished that far better than Word.
Fare thee well, you Racsal!
“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
HST
How sad. Raskin was quite a character and he will be missed. One of the larger, more exciting, and unique characters to pass through Apple’s doors, and certainly one of the most instrumental for molding the modern computing experience.
His family should be very proud of the legacy he left behind. He’s one of the few people in the world who can honestly say that they made a difference.
A man who’s contributions to technology and humanity will not be soon forgotten.
Thanks for everything Jeff, and our best goes out to you and your family.
As an old friend once said:
“God calls home the best ones first”
Blast: I wrote a 30,000 MSc thesis about the GUI largely on the basis of Raskin’s inspiration (http://members.maclaunch.com/richmond) – although going even more graphical rather than more textual.
He’s the guy who kept me awake at nights with my brain churning – and no he’s gone!
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Apple will be in our mind forever.