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The Mac's creator on Apple, Jobs and his new project
February 11, 2004 - 07:30 PST
by Dennis Sellers - Jef Raskin, creator of the Macintosh and author of such books as "The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems," still uses Macs, finds that Apple hardware "is, as always, snazzy," and likes the professional strength underpinnings of Mac OS X. However, he feels the interface on Mac OS X is a "disaster," comprised of the "same old stuff, but with more patches and more obnoxious behavior than ever." Raskin feels he has a better idea—and also some advice for Apple, he told MacMinute in an interview.
Among his criticisms of graphic user interfaces (GUIs), Macs and Windows, as told to BusinessWeek are: pull-down menus hide information that users might want to see; text editors require too many keyboard movements; shuttling between a keyboard and a mouse wastes too much time; and fundamental flaws in desktop-command conventions can result in data loss. Raskin and his company, T.H.E. (The Humane Environment) are working on a new type of command structure (dubbed simply THE) that merges the strengths of the graphical user interface with the flexibility of command-line systems common in more complex software.
THE is designed to provide a "better and truly pleasant way for us to interact with a wide range of technology; from computers and PDAs to cell phones and other information appliances," Raskin explains in an online column. "THE is a nucleus to which commands are added. The commands are what you use to do tasks from checking email to rendering video frames. Superficially, this sounds like an operating system to which applications are added, but it is fundamentally different, especially from a human-centered point of view. By adding individual commands rather than whole applications, which sometimes have hundreds or thousands of commands, you can install only what you need and understand."
He explains that companies that now make applications will also be able to sell commands or command sets using the same underlying engines that they currently offer. "Because all commands are invoked in the same way (a property of the nucleus) there is a lot less for you to learn when you purchase new software. Commands never become invisibly hidden deep in a menu structure, and can be invoked at any time, just as in command-line systems—but you never get locked into modes as in vi or emacs," Raskin explains.
The current version of THE is Mac, Windows and Linux compatible. "It's not ready for release, but if programmers want to try it out (or, even better, help finish it) it's there for the using," Raskin says.
However, he says that when promoting THE it's sometimes difficult getting past the mindset of the Mac-Windows GUI interface.
"It isn't hard for me and our crew; we've been thinking about these issues for a long time," Raskin says. "But it is hard for most people, especially those in the industry. What has been a little upsetting is that many younger programmers, who used to be the drivers of new ideas, are so used to GUIs that they can't see how bad they are. They grew up with GUIs and assume that that's the natural order of things. It sometimes takes days before they begin to 'get it' and see the problems with standard interfaces."
Despite this, he feels that a change to simplicity regarding computers is coming, especially as annoyance with Windows is high. And as for the current operating system scenario, he thinks that Microsoft will continue to dominate, but that alternatives such as the Mac operating system and Linux will "eventually take up a significant market share."
As for Apple, which Raskin left in 1982, purportedly after Steve Jobs increasingly muscled in on the Macintosh project, Raskin says there are major flaws with most reports of the company's history. He addresses them in his essay, "Holes in the Histories". When asked about his current relationship with Jobs, Raskin says, " Steve Jobs is where he always wanted to be, a Hollywood mogul, entwined in the entertainment business. Mazel tov."
One interesting bit of trivia is that Jobs initially wanted to dub the computer project that would become the Macintosh "Bicycle" because it was as easy to learn as riding a bike. But Raskin won out with his fruity twist on the Apple company name.
"After his choice name, Bicycle, bit the dust, Steve Jobs paid tens of thousands of dollars to come up with a name better than 'Macintosh'," Raskin says.
His family has six Macs and four PCs. Raskin has a G4 with dual screens that stretch across his desk. Both he and his wife own 12-inch iBooks and travel with them. Their son has a Titanium PowerBook, their older daughter a G3 tower, and their younger daughter also has a small iBook (which is required by her school). Two of the PCs are for driving CNC machines, and the other two are for THE software development. Raskin also has several older Macs (including the millionth Mac), some Apple IIs (including S/N 2), and an Apple I.
Obviously, he's still a Mac fan though his G4—which is running Mac OS X (Panther)—often crashes if he lets it sleep for a few hours ("Maybe one of your readers knows why, I sure don't"). Despite this snafu, he bristles at being called "one of the creators" of the Mac, saying that he is "the" creator.
"It is in the same sense that Edison invented the light bulb: other people built it and tested various materials and made it work, but his idea of a glowing filament heated electrically was the key," Raskin says. "And there were precedents that one can cite, but those inventors did not get a company to produce their ideas. Similarly, the fundamental idea of the Mac—building a computer to support an interface, and to make the architecture inherently graphical with a graphic input device and a bit-mapped display—was due to nobody else at Apple. And, with long effort during which it was opposed, I got a company to actually produce it. I do not minimize the significant and central work done by others, many contributed to the design and realization to the Mac, but there was only one person at Apple who had the initial vision, a vision preserved even in the present product."
As for the iPod, he foresees it as a success for a while, "but the race to the cheapest implementation has already started, and Apple will be hard-pressed to keep up (or down) with the competitor's prices." Finally, Raskin does have some advice for Apple, especially in its development of the Mac.
"Hire me to lead the design of the next generation of interfaces, and thus let Apple become No. 1 again," he says. "This would be for the same reason the Mac was a hit: it will be easier to use and more fun than anything else on earth, and not by a little bit either. This time I think Jobs knows enough to stay on top."
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