Jef Raskin (nonfiction)

Jef Raskin holding a model of the Canon Cat computer.

Jef Raskin (March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American human–computer interface expert best known for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project for Apple in the late 1970s.

His first computer program, a music program, was part of his master's thesis.

Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but stopped to teach art, photography and computer science there, working as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center which used a 16 bit Data General Nova computer and graphic display terminals rather than the teletypes which were in use at that time.

In January 1978 Raskin joined Apple as Manager of Publications, the company's 31st employee. For some time he continued as Director of Publications and New Product Review, and also worked on packaging and other issues.

From his responsibility for documentation and testing, Raskin had great influence on early engineering projects

Raskin started the Macintosh project in 1979.

Raskin left Apple in 1982 and formed Information Appliance, Inc. to implement the concepts of his original Macintosh concept.

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links:

• Jef Raskin @ Wikipedia

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