Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cute... 53414e544120414e442048495320574f524b53484f50 = SANTA AND HIS WORKSHOP
Ha, I was wondering how you managed to reverse the hash and then had a facepalm moment.
Larry Tesler Has Died
71–80 of 163 posts
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#72I was just eating lunch across the street from Apple's headquarters in Cupertino when I read the news. The John Sculley era of Apple has received a lot of criticism. With that being said, one of the aspects of this era that I'm most impressed with is the work that came out of Apple's Advanced Technology Group. During this time period Apple was serious about advancing the state of research in the areas of programming…
Larry was influential in the development and the missions of both ATG and the Human Interface Group, both of which are now gone now. He believed in conducting practical experiments with users and collecting objective measurements of how well UI worked. He wanted to find general principles that could be used to make all software better for everyone.
Steve Jobs killed both ATG and HIG. I think your point about times being rough and money being tight are valid, but three years earlier Steve Jobs sat in my office at NeXT and told me that if it was up to him, Apple would kill ATG and HIG--not because they were expensive, but because, in his words, they had too much influence.
Sure enough, when he took over Apple again, he wasted no time in killing them and replacing them with himself.
You're probably right that cutting those expenses was important to Apple's recovery. I think your other point is right, too, though: we'd be better off if Apple--or somebody--reconstituted something like HIG to show the industry what's possible if you take user experience and human-computer interaction seriously.
Unfortunately, Larry can't help us with it this time.
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#73Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#74He gave us so much more than cut, copy, paste. It's clear from all the design history books that I've read that he's a legend.[1] NO MODES! https://itsthedatastupid.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/nomodes... [1] One of the more rare sources for Larry Tesler's contributions is his interview for Bill Moggridge's Designing Interactions ( http://www.designinginteractions.com/interviews/LarryTesler )
Is there somewhere he elaborates on his No Modes philosophy?
Is it a blanket rule for him for all interfaces, or just text editors?
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#75I met Larry in about 1992 when I went to work on the Newton project. I had seen him around Apple before, and I knew who he was and what he was known for, but I didn't actually meet him until I joined the Newton team. I found him friendly, modest, smart, shrewd, compassionate, full of interesting knowledge and ideas, and interested in other people and their ideas. I got to know him better when John Sculley ordered him…
This is the sort of environment I had always envisioned growing up dreaming of being a software professional
I've lost some colleagues along the way too you never know when it's going to happen every chance to speak should be treated with the respect of knowing it could very well be the last chance to make a connection
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#76I've been meaning to watch one of his presentations for a while: "Origins of the Apple Human Interface"
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I imagine those "early line and character editors" refers to vi's delete, yank, and put, and emacs's kill, copy/"save as if killed", and yank. No, 1974 predates both vi and Emacs
You're right, I missed that. Vi's predecessor ex, which also had these operations, is from '76, so it also couldn't be it. However, Emacs's TECO, which also had yank, is from '62/'63, so that might've been one.
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#78Larry was a great thinker. I got to discuss "vi vs. emacs" at one of the Fellows induction ceremonies held at the Computer History Museum. He could easily articulate counter cases and keep the discussion both productive and quite civil! I first met him while I was visiting my wife at her office in Xerox Business Systems (XBS). He came over to discuss some suggestions to improve the protocol she was working on. I thou…
Which side of the debate was he on personally?
He was very much in favor of modeless design, which emacs is much closer to than vi is. My argument was that emacs still has modes, operationally. You can make it a debugger, a mail reader, or a text editor by invoking code that puts it in that "mode." So the discussion quickly becomes what is meant by 'mode' and how are operational modes different than semantic modes which are different than presentation modes. If you haven't guessed it was pretty memorable for me, it helped me see some insights into the difference between design and engineering.
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#79I'm bad at names, so I didn't know the name, but followed the Wikipedia link and saw he was the "modeless" advocate, and I learned about that from this awesome Bret Victor talk: https://vimeo.com/36579366. Someone has commented to forward to 38 minutes to hear it.
That Bret Victor talk still influences me today, so please watch it I think it'll help you if you haven't watched it already.
Re: Larry Tesler Has Died
#80I didn’t know of Larry Tesler, but reading the comments makes me want to lead like he did. Looking forward to learning more about his life. My condolences to his friends here.