Terminal Grumpiness
July 14, 2004
MacMinute reports on Original Mac team members look at the 'Mac at 20'. Andy Hertzfeld, Jef Raskin, Bill Atkinson and Jerry Manock get together with David Pogue to look back on "20 Years of Innovation". A worthwhile pursuit in general methinks. (9UV)
Within, though, I find: (9UW)
Raskin said that Jobs didn't really understand interface design –- and still doesn't. He added that, as he has before, that the Mac OS has gone from "insanely great" to "insanely gross." Raskin said that Mac users are too often having to use the terminal to solve problems. PS (9UX)
This made me bristle, as I feel differently: Mac OS started out neat but fundamentally encumbered with inefficiencies, hit its height about System 6, took a nose dive with 7 and came in for a three point landing on my desktop with 10.3. What made it right? The availability of the terminal. And if I could get off my butt and do more with it the way AppleScript? is deeply embedded in so much would make it even better. (9UY)
I find Raskin's comments especially odd because they seem at odd with his goals for THE: (9UZ)
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." PS (9V0)
(Having a task rather than application orientation is so totally the way to go.) (9V1)
Whether justified or not, his complaints about Mac OS sound like the ravings of a grumpy old man. (9V2)
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