Revisioun vum Apple säi schlechte Lisa Computer, 40 Joer méi spéit

Haut viru 40 Joer gouf en neien Typ vu perséinleche Computer ugekënnegt, deen d’Welt fir ëmmer verännere géif. Zwee Joer méi spéit war et bal komplett vergiess.

D’Apple Lisa huet 1978 als neie Projet fir de Steve Wozniak ugefaang. D’Iddi war en fortgeschratt Computer mat engem Bit-Slice Prozessor ze maachen, e fréie Versuch op skalierbaren Informatik. De Woz gouf vun anere Saachen ofgelenkt, an de Projet huet net ernst ugefaang bis Ufank 1979. Dat ass wann d’Apple-Gestioun e Projetsleader agefouert huet an ugefaang huet Leit ze schaffen fir drun ze schaffen.

D’Lisa gouf nom Steve Jobs senger Duechter benannt, obwuel Jobs d’Verbindung a seng Elteren ofgeleent huet. Awer déi interessantst Saach iwwer de Lisa Computer war wéi et sech an eppes eenzegaarteg entwéckelt huet: Et war deen éischte perséinleche Computer mat enger grafescher User-Interface (GUI).

D’Visioun hëlt Form

GUIs goufen am Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) an de fréien 1970er erfonnt. D’Alto Workstation, déi ni un de Public verkaaft gouf, hat e bitmapped Bildschierm, deen d’Gréisst an d’Orientéierung vun engem Stéck Pabeier mimikéiert. PARC Fuerscher hunn Software geschriwwen déi Fënsteren an Ikonen ugewisen hunn, a si hunn eng Maus benotzt fir e Pointer op deem Écran ze bewegen.

Jef Raskin, e fréie Apple Employé deen d’Handbuch fir den Apple geschriwwen huet][, had visited PARC in 1973. He believed that GUIs were the future. Raskin managed to persuade the Lisa project leader to change the computer into a GUI machine. However, he couldn’t convince Jobs, who thought Raskin and Xerox were incompetent.

Raskin altered his approach and got graphics programmer Bill Atkinson to propose an official tour of PARC in November 1979. Because Jobs thought Atkinson was great, he agreed to come along. Jobs’ visit to PARC became the stuff of legend, a tale of a brilliant visionary seeing the future of computing for the first time. But in reality, Atkinson was already working on LisaGraf—the low-level code that would power the Lisa’s GUI—months before Jobs saw the PARC demo.

The Lisa’s hardware changed as well. The team abandoned the bit-slice processor and adopted Motorola’s new 68000 CPU. The 68000 was a 16/32-bit chip and used a 24-bit address bus, giving it a maximum of 16 megabytes of memory. This was fine, as memory prices were still sky-high in 1980, and most computers of the day had a maximum of 64 kilobytes of RAM.

In January 1981, senior leadership at Apple got tired of Jobs’ constant interference and micromanagement of the Lisa project and officially removed him from the team. Jobs seethed, then took over a smaller skunkworks project being run by Raskin. This would become important later.

By early 1982, the Lisa hardware was mostly finalized. However, the software was still in flux. A team of designers—including Larry Tesler, who had left PARC to join Apple—had been busy doing tons of research, prototyping, and testing. The main question they had was: How should the Lisa’s GUI actually work?

An engem Artikel am Magazin Interactions, hunn d’Designer Roderick Perkins, Dan Smith a Frank Ludolph beschriwwen wéi d’Lisa Interface vun fréie Prototypen op e vertraute Desktop mat Ikonen geännert huet, dann ewech vun deem Modell, dann endlech zréck op en Ikon-baséiert, Dokument- centric Approche. D’Zil war d’Lisa mächteg a lëschteg ze maachen.

Endlech war d’Lisa prett fir dem Public enthüllt ze ginn. Den 19. Januar 1983 huet Apple de Computer ugekënnegt, deen et genee als “revolutionär” beschriwwen huet.