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Bill Atkinson has died

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Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#41

Post by JKCalhoun »

rjsw wrote: post #35
dkislyuk wrote: post #16

From Walter Isaacson's _Steve Jobs_: > One of Bill Atkinson’s amazing feats (which we are so accustomed to nowadays that we rarely marvel at it) was to allow the windows on a screen to overlap so that the “top” one clipped into the ones “below” it. Atkinson made it possible to move these windows around, just like shuffling papers on a desk, with those below becoming visible or hidden as you moved the top ones. Of cou…

I think the difference between the Apple and Xerox approach may be more complicated than the people at PARC not knowing how to do this. The Alto doesn't have a framebuffer, each window has its own buffer and the microcode walks the windows to work out what to put on each scanline.

Not doubting that, but what is the substantive difference here? Does the fact that there is a screen buffer on the Mac facilitate clipping that is otherwise not possible on the Alto?

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#42

Post by mjevans »

rjsw wrote: post #35
dkislyuk wrote: post #16

From Walter Isaacson's _Steve Jobs_: > One of Bill Atkinson’s amazing feats (which we are so accustomed to nowadays that we rarely marvel at it) was to allow the windows on a screen to overlap so that the “top” one clipped into the ones “below” it. Atkinson made it possible to move these windows around, just like shuffling papers on a desk, with those below becoming visible or hidden as you moved the top ones. Of cou…

I think the difference between the Apple and Xerox approach may be more complicated than the people at PARC not knowing how to do this. The Alto doesn't have a framebuffer, each window has its own buffer and the microcode walks the windows to work out what to put on each scanline.

Reminds me of a GPU's general workflow. (like the sibling comment, 'isn't that the obvious way this is done'? Different drawing areas being hit by 'firmware' / 'software' renderers?)

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#43

Post by jkestner »

asveikau wrote: post #19
matthewn wrote: post #13

In an alternate timeline, HyperCard was not allowed to wither and die, but instead continued to mature, embraced the web, and inspired an entire genre of software-creating software. In this timeline, people shape their computing experiences as easily as one might sculpt a piece of clay, creating personal apps that make perfect sense to them and fit like a glove; computing devices actually become (for everyone, not ju…

Maybe there's some sense of longing for a tool that's similar today, but there's no way of knowing how much hypercard did have the impact you are talking about. For example many of us reading here experienced HyperCard. It planted seeds in our future endeavors. I remember in elementary school, I had some computer lab classes where the whole class worked in hypercard on some task. Multiply that by however many classro…

Word. This is the Papert philosophy of constructionism, learning to think by making that so many of us still carry. I’m still trying to build software-building software. We do live in that timeline; it’s just unevenly distributed.

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#44

Post by JKCalhoun »

scrlk wrote: post #20

Bill Atkinson demoing MacPaint at the Macintosh introduction in 1984: https://youtu.be/1tQ5XwvjPmA?t=1781

Plenty of interviews will Bill on YouTube. Example: https://youtu.be/dhlKTRU--VA

Also, perhaps the General Magic documentary is a fun watch too: https://youtu.be/JQymn5flcek

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#46

Post by jajko »

dkislyuk wrote: post #16

From Walter Isaacson's _Steve Jobs_: > One of Bill Atkinson’s amazing feats (which we are so accustomed to nowadays that we rarely marvel at it) was to allow the windows on a screen to overlap so that the “top” one clipped into the ones “below” it. Atkinson made it possible to move these windows around, just like shuffling papers on a desk, with those below becoming visible or hidden as you moved the top ones. Of cou…

Pretty awesome story, but also with a bit of dark lining. Of course any owner, and triple that for Jobs, loves over-competent guys who work themselves to the death, here almost literally.

But that's not a recipe for personal happiness for most people, and most of us would not end up contributing revolutionary improvements even if done so. World needs awesome workers, and we also need ie awesome parents or just happy balanced content people (or at least some part of those).

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#49

Post by baumgarn »

I fondly remember creating simple narrative stories and games with HyperCard at 6 years old on my dad's Macintosh SE. It was my first contact with programming and a fundamental seed to using the computer as a creative tool. It has shaped my life in a substantial way. RIP Bill - HN bar should be blacked out.

Re: Bill Atkinson has died

#50

Post by gavmor »

dboreham wrote: post #36
gavmor wrote: post #23

If you haven't, check out the documentary[0] on General Magic which Bill co-founded in 1990. Among the more remarkable scenes in there is when a member of the public seems perplexed by the thought that they would even want to "check email from Times Square." An unthinkable future, but they thought it. And yet, most folks have never heard of General Magic. 0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQymn5flcek

Invaluable film if you believe Apple invented the smart phone.

Invaluable film if you believe invention is what made Apple valuable.
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