Farewell To A Great Pioneer

Posted on February 28th, 2005 Posted by Kent Pribbernow

This is rather off-topic, but I have just learned that Apple legend and Mac user interface pioneer Jef Raskin has died of Cancer at age 61. This is truly a great loss to the computing industry. Though Raskin has long since retired, he was a true pioneer who made great contributions to the world of personal computing, even in small ways. He helped design what would become the Macintosh user interface, and many conventions still used today on modern operating systems. I relished some of the stories he recanted of his early days designing the Mac user interface, such as a heated argument he had with Steve Jobs over the use of user dialog widgets, like the classic “Ok” and “Cancel” buttons, shaped like rectangles with rounded edges. Jobs was dead set against them, insisting instead on straight edged rectangles like those found in Windows. But Raskin stuck to his guns and even showed Steve where such shapes appear in the natural world, like highway interstate signs.Fascinating stuff.

Though his life has ended, his contributions will endure for generations to come. Thanks for everything Jef.