1984-2024: the book you must have! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2024, 12:33:56 pm
content: Revolution in The Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was MadeSeehere, thanks me laterQuote

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2024, 01:15:25 pm
content: The book has some nice anecdotes indeed, which give a flavor of how working at Apple must have felt back then. Most (all?) stories are also available here for free -- not a pirate site, but Andy Hertzfeld's own collection:https://folklore.org

author: DiTBho
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2024, 01:35:08 pm
content: the photos of the manuscripts, and how they got organized and printed, are *THE* added value

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2024, 07:49:01 pm
content: Did you know that the "Mac" project was initially designed around a 6809?

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 25, 2024, 09:14:36 pm
content: Yep.

author: rhodges
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2024, 02:36:07 am
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on January 25, 2024, 07:49:01 pmReally? I programmed for the 6809 for a few years, and I was impressed with its access modes, but I considered it a good embedded processor. Not a desktop CPU...I never did much with the 68K, but I respected it as a very capable CPU. I think Apple made the right choice.

author: pqass
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2024, 04:55:11 am
content: Quote from: DiTBho on January 25, 2024, 12:33:56 pmAny mention of the Xerox Alto, WIMP/GUI tech, and the Apple Lisa that preceded it?That blurb makes it sound like the Mac emerged from just one team; when actually it was a second attempt.One that was at least marketable to a wider clientele. Seethis brief history.

author: ebastler
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2024, 08:59:16 am
content: Quote from: pqass on January 26, 2024, 04:55:11 amI can only comment on the folklore.org website, which actually containsmorestories than the book. (Hertzfeld has continued to collect them after the book was published, and probably the editors down-selected a bit for the book.) Those anecdotes certainly acknowledge the heritage and influence from the Xerox Alto and Apple's Lisa team.My favorite anecdote regarding Xerox is when Steve Jobs confronts Bill Gates about "stealing" Apple's GUI ideas, after Microsoft had announced Windows 1.0. Gates' response was: "Well, Steve, I think there's more than one way of looking at it. I think it's more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it."

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 26, 2024, 09:29:00 pm
content: The story of the GUI-based computers at Apple is a bit more complicated than what most people have in mind, between the Lisa and Macintosh projects.For instance, the Lisa is not as much a Steve Jobs project as many think. Even despite the name (which is thought to be his daughter's name, ironically). Sure he came back from Xerox with the ideas, but after that, things got awry.He was actually set aside for its development, and embarked on the Macintosh project - that Apple didn't care much about at the time - as a kind of revenge, or second chance.When Apple started to become big in the early 80's, Steve Jobs, despite being the cofounder, was not that well positioned at Apple. (And everyone knows he eventually got kicked out.)It's a pretty interesting story, both for the technical and human aspects, so I recommend reading it as well!As to Xerox, let's also recall that Niklaus Wirth himself spent a whole year at Xerox as a sabbatical, and also came back with ideas that would lead to the development of his workstations (like the Lilith).