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Feb01: Paradigms Past: History in the Making

Paradigms Past: History in the Making

There is always some critical mass of material that is necessary to collect, organize, and present for a history to work. Up to a point, a partial history isn't really a history at all. Only when you get close to an exhaustive survey of the subject do you have a chance of treating the material in a fair, accurate, balanced manner.

But because each of the processes of collecting original material, doing interviews, and writing lead to the discovery of new areas that need to be included (a process that can expand infinitely unless you find a logical way to curtail it), you find yourself early in the process with an unbalanced, unsatisfactory collection of material whose significance you may suspect, but you can't properly articulate. The pieces may be interesting on their own, but their connection with one another and their significance in the big picture are unclear.

I'd like to draw your attention to such an unsatisfactory collection of material. At http://library.stanford.edu/mac/index.html you will find Alex Soojung-Kim Pang's Making the Macintosh project. It's good work, and it's only unsatisfactory in the sense that I just articulated — it's unbalanced because it's not finished.

Among its jewels, the site has a number of interviews with some people who know a lot about the creation of the Macintosh. Jef Raskin, for example. Now, Jef certainly has knowledge that no one else has about the origins of the Mac: He named it, he started the project, he is responsible for some key decisions in its early history. You can't tell the Mac story without Jef's input. Also, Jef is articulate, opinionated, and has thought long and hard and productively about user interface design.

However, Jef's view of what the Macintosh was supposed to be bears little resemblance to what it became after Steve Jobs elbowed him out of the picture and took over the Macintosh project. Jef's perspective might be the one clear vision of naked truth, but it's not an unchallenged view. The site needs a balancing perspective. In this sense, the site provides depth without breadth. That's not to take anything away from the excellent content there now.

It's a nudge to those of you who know a piece of the story. This is a well-begun project, and with input from more of the people who know, it could be richer and fuller and more truly a work of computer history.

— M.S.


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