 |
MEDIA CENTER PC NEWSFebruary 28th 2005 GUI Pioneer Jef Raskin Dies
It is unlikely that you would be reading this news story online today, were it not for Raskin's pioneering work in the early 80s with the Apple Macintosh. Before Raskin joined Apple, computer interfaces were command line only. He envisaged the GUI (graphical user interface) which marked out the first Apple Mac from its predecessors, along the way inventing methods of controlling a computer that today's users take for granted, such as click and drag. On the other side of the coin he was also responsible for travesties such as the one-buttoned mouse, although he is later reported as saying that if he could do it again, the Mac would have a 2 button mouse. The accesibility of home computing, often attributed to Apple, can be traced right back to Jef Raskin. Raskin's death comes at a time when GUI boundaries are shifting again with the move of the PC from the desk to the living room and the necessary shift to a GUI controlled by a remote control. Raskin was working on a project called 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 (think Minority Report!). Switching away from the GUI we all know and love, to a ZUI would be a change as dramatic as the shift from command-line to GUI that Raskin encouraged in the 80s. Redefining the way we use computers just once would be enough for most men. Raskin may well have done it twice. |
Get Our News By EmailTake Our SurveyMost Viewed Products - May |
|
 |
 |
|
|
