Dr. Dobb's Journal May, 2005
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
—Dylan Thomas
Jef Raskin died February 26. Composer, performer, mathematician, painter, model-plane designer, programmer, and critic: Jef was a polymath. But by most of us, he will be remembered for his work on computer and software design, and for his unflagging efforts to make computers work for people, not the other way around.
That was his ambition when, as employee number 31 at Apple (after a stint as a Dr. Dobb's Journal editor), he started a skunkworks project that he named "Macintosh." If Jef Raskin's Macintosh had been built instead of Steve Job's Macintosh, it probably would have cost half as much and looked like an Osborne 1. The driving software probably would have resembled a clever extension of a text editor more than an operating system. And it definitely would have been designed for (Raskin's acronym) the "PITS"—the Person In The Street.
That was also his ambition when he licensed a design to Canon and saw it released in the Canon Cat, a fine product that could have changed the way we use computers if Canon hadn't abandoned it. The Canon Cat software didn't have file names or directories. It didn't have applications and almost didn't have modes. It was so mode-averse that Jef designed it without a power switch.
That was his ambition when he developed Archy, the project that he was trying to finish when he died. Archy is a nucleus to which commands can be added, in contrast with an operating system to which applications can be added. It's an attempt to move on to the next thing after CLIs and GUIs, synthesizing what is best in each into a framework that is both efficient to use and easy to learn. Jef's son and others are carrying on his work and hope to release Archy this year (see http://www.raskincenter.org/).
Jef was a user-interface visionary who had both close and distant vision. He didn't just dream up new ways for humans and computers to interact; he worked out detailed specs for his ideas and backed up his decisions with solid research on how people actually behave. He was capable of denouncing the entire Mac/Windows GUI approach, while also laying out precise, scientifically grounded specs of details of the user interface he wanted to see.
He was also a gifted communicator, as demonstrated in his teaching, his early documentation work at Apple, his book The Human Interface (ACM Press, 2000; ISBN 0201379376), and in inspiring and provocative essays on his web site.
But so far, his inspiring and provocative words have forked no lightning. This makes me mad—a not inappropriate reaction, I think.
I recall Jef as irascible, sarcastic, opinionated, always ready to defend his view of things, unwilling to suffer fools gladly or to put up with inefficiency or inconsiderate design. His tenure at Apple was cut short by his unwillingness to put up with Steve Jobs, and I read somewhere that he once resigned from a teaching job by serenading a university official from a hot-air balloon.
I don't see Jef as one to go gentle into that good night.
So in that spirit, I want to flame just a little about one issue that Jef fought for: the elimination of the application software model of software development. I don't claim that I will be promoting Jef's views, precisely, just flaming under his inspiration.
When I was trying to become a writer, one thing that got in my way was the typewriter. A certain lack of manual dexterity made me a really poor typist. The advent of the personal computer with word processing was a wonderful thing for me: The forgiving nature of the word processor allowed me to learn to type modestly well, and to write much more effectively. I really became a writer when I was able to get rid of my typewriter.
Now I want to get rid of my word processor—and every application program that requires me to go through a tedious launch process to use its capabilities and puts me in its own world where I have to remember to express what ought to be reflex actions in its peculiar vernacular.
Applications are today's typewriters, and I eagerly await the day when they go away.
Now wouldn't that be a nice vindication for Jef.