From the days of yore
When you work in an office, or more precisely a cubicle, you often receive an inheritance from the previous occupants. In my last office I inherited a number of books, which I didn’t pay much attention to until I moved out. Among the chaff, I recently discovered some wheat. Well, not really wheat: more like wood pulp, quite inedible wood pulp, but interesting inedible wood pulp nonetheless.
- Macintosh Pascal by Robert Moll and Rachel Folsom, 1985.
- Macintosh Revealed: Unlocking the Toolbox by Stephen Chernicoff, 1987.
- Macintosh Revealed: Programming with the Toolbox by Stephen Chernicoff, 1987.
- Macintosh 512K enhanced by Carol Kaehler, Apple Computer, 1986.
The last book is particularly interesting, because it’s a manual. That’s right, folks, believe it or not, Macs used to come with a manual! Actually, Macs still come with a manual, but it’s mostly a hardware manual, whereas the old manual gives extensive instructions on how to use the operating system and software. I could tell that it was from the 80s without even looking at the publication date, because the people in the photos are all wearing official 80s uniforms, hairstyle included. I imagine that a-ha is playing in the background.
A few things struck me in looking through these books. First, a cloud of dust in my face. Second, it struck me how much has remained the same over the years. The Finder is still there, along with the Desktop and the majority of menu items, keyboard shortcuts, and mouse behaviors. I was intrigued by something called the MiniFinder, which seems to be a cross between the Dock and the application switcher. (Really, it wasn’t so mini, because it took up the entire screen.)
Another thing that struck me was the status of Pascal as the primary language for the Mac at that time. I wrote Pascal programs a lot as an undergraduate. I think I last saw Pascal on one of those VH-1 Where are they now?
specials.
The final thing that struck me was the vast number of years Chris Espinosa has spent at Apple. The acknowledgments of Stephen Chernicoff’s books thank Chris Espinosa as one of his managers at Apple. Chris still posts frequently as a representative of Apple on the Xcode-users mailing list. Of course, I’m just assuming that it’s the same person rather than, say, the second generation of Espinosas, and that Chris has been at Apple the whole time.
Sorry, this post doesn’t offer any useful information. If you didn’t like it, you can send me feedback, but you have to use a #2 pencil.
October 20th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I’m just assuming that it’s the same person rather than, say, the second generation of Espinosas, and that Chris has been at Apple the whole time
It is.
October 20th, 2006 at 11:41 pm
I recall being at WWDC about 5 years ago in a session where Chris introduced himself proudly as Employee no.8. Actually, he has his own Wikipedia entry!
October 21st, 2006 at 1:16 am
“I was intrigued by something called the MiniFinder, which seems to be a cross between the Dock and the application switcher.â€
It’s actually an application launcher, since MultiFinder hadn’t been introduced yet, and therefore you could only have one application running at one time (Finder, MiniFinder, *). You had to quit your current application to get back to Finder or MiniFinder, and when you launched an application from there, Finder/MiniFinder would quit. This, of course, was because the original Mac’s specs were too low for the purpose of running multiple processes.
And in case you’re wondering how desk accessories worked: they’re device drivers. No, really. I’m not kidding.