杰夫·拉斯金

杰夫·拉斯金（英语：Jef Raskin，1943年3月9日—2005年2月26日），生于美国纽约州纽约市，人机界面专家，最为人所知者为于1970年代后期为苹果电脑创建麦金塔计划。

生平

1943年出生于犹太人家庭。在纽约州立大学石溪分校取得数学与物理双学士，副修哲学与音乐，之后在宾州州立大学取得计算机科学硕士，有完成博士班课程但未取得博士学位。然后他转往加州大学圣地亚哥分校念音乐研究所，但没多久改为研究视觉艺术，并取得美国国家科学基金会提供的奖金研究人机图像界面。

1977年，在第一届West Coast Computer Faire中，遇到去展示Apple II的史蒂夫·乔布斯与斯蒂夫·沃兹尼亚克，在攀谈后，史蒂夫·乔布斯决定雇用他创办的公司，Bannister and Crun，为Apple II撰写BASIC程式使用手册。1978年1月，杰夫·拉斯金加入苹果电脑公司，成为公司第31位员工。

1979年，杰夫·拉斯金开始麦金塔研发计划。

曾发言指称OS X为一种退步。

2004年12月，拉斯金被诊断罹患胰腺癌，2005年2月26日于加州帕西菲卡病逝，享年61岁。

Jef Raskin (born Jeff Raskin; March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American human–computer interface expert who conceived and began leading the Macintosh project at Apple in the late 1970s.

Early life and education

Jef Raskin was born in New York City to a secular Jewish family, whose surname is a matronymic from "Raske", Yiddish nickname for Rachel. He received a BA in mathematics and a BS in physics with minors in philosophy and music from Stony Brook University. In 1967, he received a master's degree in computer science from Pennsylvania State University, after having switched from mathematical logic due to differences of opinion with his advisor. Even though he had completed work typical for a PhD, the university was not accredited for a PhD in computer science. The first original computer application he wrote was a music application as part of his master's thesis.

Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), but quit to teach art, photography, and computer science there. He worked as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. There, he presented shows about toys as works of art. Raskin announced his resignation from the assistant professorship by flying over the Chancellor's house in a hot air balloon. He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center, which used several 16-bit Data General Nova computers and CRTs, rather than the more common Teletype teleprinters.

Along with his undergraduate student Jonathan (Jon) Collins, Raskin developed the FLOW programming language for use in teaching programming to the art and humanities students. The language was first used at the Humanities Summer Training Institute held in 1970 at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. The language has only seven statements (COMMENT, GET IT, PRINT IT, PRINT "text", JUMP TO, IF IT IS " " JUMP TO, and STOP) and can not manipulate numbers. The language was first implemented in Fortran by Collins in under a week. Later versions of the language utilized "typing amplification" in which only the first letter is typed and the computer provides the balance of the instruction eliminating typing errors. It was also the basis for programming classes taught by Raskin and Collins in the UCSD Visual Arts Department.

Raskin curated several art shows including one featuring his collection of unusual toys, and presenting toys as works of art. During this period, he changed the spelling of his name from "Jeff" to "Jef" after having met Jon Collins and liking the lack of extraneous letters.

Raskin occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as Dr. Dobb's Journal. He formed a company named Bannister and Crun, which was named for two characters playing in the BBC radio comedy The Goon Show.

Career history

Contractor writer

Raskin first met Apple Computer co-founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in their garage workshop following the debut of their Apple II personal computer at the first West Coast Computer Faire. Jobs hired Raskin's company Bannister and Crun to write the Apple II BASIC Programming Manual. Raskin said "I was talking fifty dollars a page. They talked fifty dollars for the whole manual." Writing on an Apple II unit with the serial number of "2", he created "a literate manual that became a standard for the young industry".

Management

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. He had concealed his degree in computer science, out of concern for cultural bias against academia among the hobby-driven personal computer industry. He explained, "If they had known ... they might not have let me in the company, because there was such an antiacademic bias in the early Apple days."