GUI Pioneer Jef Raskin Has Passed Away

Viridian writes "Jef Raskin, GUI pioneer, interface expert, Apple employee #31, and the man most credited with the creation of the Apple Macintosh, died of cancer on Saturday February 26, 2005. It was Raskin who named it after his favorite fruit, the McIntosh apple, although he said that he changed the spelling to "Macintosh" to avoid potential copyright conflicts with McIntosh, the audio equipment manufacturer."

Comments

GUI King

[LiquidCoooled]

With the greatest respect to the guy :)

--Confirmation Dialog--
Jef Raskin, are you sure you want to logout?

[Yes] [No]

Re:GUI King

[Anonymous Coward]

[Undo]! [Undo]!

An Apple falls from the tree

[CA_Jim]

Goodbye.

from the :( dept, indeed

[ggvaidya]

So long, and thanks for all the clicks, Jef. May you find the perfect interface you have dreamt of for so long in the hereafter.

For ever in debt.

Re:from the :( dept, indeed

[ewhac]

May you find the perfect interface you have dreamt of for so long in the hereafter.

Are you kidding? Raskin would have no compunction whatsoever against lecturing God him/herself. He's probably out there right now talking God's ear off, saying, "This whole arrangement you have here -- angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim... Strict heirarchical systems tend to break down when they get too large. When new things don't fit, they either get placed randomly or in a giant 'misc' pile, and people can't find things anymore. And I noticed your giant 'misc' pile as I was walking in, so..."

(Disclaimer: I do not actually know Mr. Raskin's professed faith.)

Offered in the spirit of good humor,
Schwab

Re:Humane Interface

[TheRaven64]

Really bad timing, considering Raskin just got $2m funding to work on the Humane Interface. People can be so inconsiderate some times...

Dibs on his stapler!

[ABeowulfCluster]

Oh yes! The Stapler!

I invented Burrell!!

[doodleboy]

There are a lot of great stories on Andy Hertzfeld's folklore.org site about the early days of the Mac, including many of the inevitable personality conflicts that arise when you have a lot of folks working under a deadline to get a huge project shipped. A fascinating site - I read it end to end when I came across it.

My sense is that while Jef had the original vision for the Mac it was Burrell Smith who did much of the actual implementation. If the Mac must have a father, Burrell might be the better choice.

Here's the funniest take on the whole thing.

Re:Thanks

[NanoGator]

Well, it's not very often that Edward James Almos posts here.

He's not *really* dead...

[mtec]

until someone empties the Trash.

I INVENTED BURRELL

[Anonymous Coward]

my favorite jef raskin story:

http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macin tosh&story=I_Invented_Burrell.txt&sortOrder=Sort%2 0by%20Date&detail=medium&search=jef%20raskin

Whatever idea that you came up with, Jef Raskin had a tendency to claim that he invented it at some earlier point. That trait was the basis of Burrell's impersonation of Jef.

Jef had a slight stammer, which Burrell nailed perfectly. Burrell began by folding his fingers together like Jef and then exclaiming in a soft, Jef-like voice, "Why, why, why, I invented the Macintosh!"

Then Burrell would shift to his radio announcer voice, playing the part of an imaginary interviewer. "No, I thought that Burrell invented the Macintosh", the interviewer would object.

He'd shift back to his Jef voice for the punch line.

"Why, why, why, I invented Burrell!"