Macintosh Computers

About the Possible Evolution of the Graphic Interface

 

Paquetes Interactivos S.A. of C.V.

Ing. Pedro Baram K.
General Manager

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The year is 1977, Apple Computer introduces the concept of the personal computer to the market. A computer sufficientcheap so that many of us can purchase one. Previously, to have access to a computer, we had to work for the government, universities or large companies. Finally we can be independent. Simultaneously, Apple introduces a new concept: Ease of Use, which quickly transforms into being User Friendly. Programs written using classic languages such as FORTRAN, COBOL and BASIC ask the user: What is your name? The user types his name: IVAN, the system greets him: HELLO IVAN, HOW ARE THESE, THE AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS ARE: and the system displays a list with the functions available to him.

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The first challenge that we as program developers encounter is the design of the communication between the user and the program (thesystem phase). Generally, the information for using the program, as well as the information fed to the program and processed by it, is much greater than what can be displayed on a single screen, so the user will have to navigate between different screens by executing various functions.

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In 1978 a new program called Visicalc was born, which generically is what we know today as a spreadsheet. It consists of identifiable cells in rows and columns that contain either texts, numbers or formulas that relate the information contained in one or more of these cells. Conceptually, this program makes the personal computer a success. Now we have a programe computation that allows us to model financial situations and observe what happens if we vary one or more of the original conditions, automatically recalculating the rest of the values in the cells. Now we can see the effect on a company if sales increase by 10%, or if expenses decrease by 5%. Visicalc not only introduces this very useful conceptual solution, but also introduces, for the first time, a simple mode of communication between the user and the program.

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To navigate between cells, you use the arrow keys on the keyboard. For the first time, the functions available in the program are grouped in a menu at the top of the screen that uses a single line. Each function has sub-functions that are only displayed when the user hovers over a function. Finally, using panoramic menus, we learned to display more information than can fit on a single screen.

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Simultaneously with Visicalc, a large number of gaming programs begin to emerge for the personal computer. Taking advantage of the fact that the Apple computer has a graphic mode, that is, it considers that the computer screen is a set of points (pixels) where some may be on and others off, it is possible to create any type of graphic figures. By lighting a group of pixels a figure is drawn. By changing the position of the figure on the screen (turning a group of pixels on and off), animations are achieved. Certain rules of behavior are added, and thus a game is created. Examples of success: Pac Man, Falcons, Aztec, Load Runner, Olympic Decathlon, among others.

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The main computer program, better known as the operating system, the one that connects and allows you to use all the elements of the computer such as keyboard, screen and disks, has not yet taken advantage of the new interface elements and continues to use written commands to execute its functions. functions.

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Apple quickly began to grow by selling a significant and increasing number of personal computers. Large computer equipment manufacturers such as IBM, who, having the technology to create a personal computer, had refused to do so since it was economically more profitable for them to sell a few computers worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars than many computers worth thousands of dollars. Dollars. It would be easier to serve a few than many customers. However, seeing Apple's success with its personal computer, in 1981 they decided to enter the market and stop the rapid growth of Apple Computer.

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To stop Apple, IBM adopts a strategy based on the following points: Offer more powerful equipment than that offered by Apple; Apple's computer processor recognizes 8-bit words, while IBM's recognizes 16-bit words. Apple's memory is 64 Kb, IBM offers 256 Kb. Apple's computer displays 40 columns of characters on the monitor, IBM's displays 80. In addition, it invites other manufacturing companies to compete against Apple by making the design of their computer open. computer so that other manufacturers will help make it a standard.

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As far as the operating system is concerned, IBM offers its own proprietary system and contracts with Microsoft, still a small company at the time, to write an alternative operating system to be used on these computers. Both the IBM and Microsoft systems not only do not provide any benefit to the ease of use of computers, but on the contrary, by having to deal with equipment produced by different manufacturers, they make the configuration of the equipment very difficult. The result of IBM's action to stop Apple can be summarized in more powerful machines, but more difficult to use. However, from an economic point of view, Apple strongly resents IBM's entry into the microcomputing market.

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In this technology war, Apple does not give up and emphasizes the concept of friendliness and ease of use promised since the birth of the concept of the personal computer. Based on the Visicalc interface, it begins to offer other programs whose way of interacting with the user begins to show the principles of a graphical interface. Document titles generated by the AppleWorks program are now displayed in folder-like elements. Later, on a visit made by Steve Jobs, Director of Apple, to the Xerox company in northern California, he learned about the principles of the first graphical interface in the history of computing: an accessory today known as a "Mouse", which connected The computer allows you to point out figures on the screen using a pointer and using a button on the "Mouse" itself, it allows you to select the indicated figure. Figures represent objects on the screen and show an icon representative of them. Thus, documents can be saved in folders, folders can be saved inside another folder, and unwanted documents can be placed inside a trash can icon to be deleted from the computer.

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Based on the Xerox graphical interface, Apple Computer decides to counterattack IBM by offering a revolutionary way of using the computer. In addition to the mouse and icons, it uses the concept of menus proposed by Visicalc at the top of the screen and creates a concept of variable-sized windows to display the content of the icons. The computer screen becomes a metaphor for the desktop cover where we have icons of disks and folders containing folders and/or documents, as well as a series of desktop accessories such as a clock, calculator, notepad, among others. At the bottom right of the screen is the trash can to delete unwanted files. With the "Mouse" we can select, open or move the different icons.

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The graphical interface requires great computational power so that the drawing on the screen is fast enough, so the equipment that uses the graphical interface is expensive. Apple thinks that it is in companies where they can pay the high cost of this equipment and launches a computer called Lisa, Apple's first business machine at a price above $10,000, which has very little acceptance in the market.

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It was at the end of 1983 when Apple managed to lower the high prices of equipment with a graphical interface and presented, broadcast at the Super Bowl, a commercial that veiledly denounced IBM's dictatorial way of doing business and announced a new revolution in the way of using the computer.

 

On January 24 Apple presents the Macintosh computer and says that 1984 will not be like 1984 (the book by George Orwell that talks about the domination of technology over man).

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However, initially the Macintosh has very few programs. Apple includes only two with it: Mac Write, a word processor, and Mac Paint, a drawing program. Months later, it was Bill Gates himself, Director of Microsoft, who recognized the potential of the graphical interface and wrote a spreadsheet called Multiplan for the Macintosh, which evolved into what we all know today as Excel. Perhaps, to the surprise of many, Microsoft's Excel and Word were first released for the Macintosh in 1985.

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A great advance in the graphic interface consists of eliminating the character generator used in traditional computers, making all the text managed as a graphic, thus allowing the use of different fonts and graphic elements, beginning the computer design of book pages. , newspapers and magazines for the publishing industry. This, coupled with relatively cheap laser printers, makes the Macintosh a success in this field.

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The operating system that Microsoft "writes" (based on CP/M, an operating system acquired by Microsoft at a very low price) for the IBM standard platform becomes very popular. The number of computers that use it quickly surpasses the operating system offered by IBM. Microsoft is positioned as the software company with the largest installed base of operating systems and soon also application programs. Gates already knows that the future of computing is in the graphical interface, and produces a graphical interface that runs on its same operating system. This is named Windows, in reference to the "windows" that the graphical interface displays.

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In its first version, Windows is not attractive to users due to its limitations and poor performance since computers have to additionally use their operating system. That is, the computer runs the original operating system, Windows on top of it and the application programs on Windows, subtracting a lot of processing speed from the computer. As computers evolve and become faster, version 3.1 of Windows appears and begins to gain greater acceptance among users. From the point of view of the graphical interface, this version of Windows does not show as many features and ease of use as the interface of the Macintosh computer. When running on equipment from different brands, it continues to present difficulties in configuring them. It is in 1995 when Microsoft releases version 95 of Windows, having a product that is quite similar in functionality to the Macintosh operating system, running at efficient speeds, and solving compatibility and configuration problems of different computers. The great advantage that Windows has over Macintosh is its enormous installed base, and the fact that the same company Microsoft produces the most used application programs that are 100% compatible with Windows.

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From 1995 to date, we have seen the graphical interface evolve more slowly. Microsoft published the Windows 98 version and then the NT and 2000 with improvements mainly in performance and networking. Apple, for its part, evolved from system 6.0 to system 9.1, which basically includes improvements in performance and some small refinements in the graphical interface. Much emphasis has been placed on adapting both platforms to take advantage of the network of networks, that is, the Internet. In recent years, both IBM-compatible computers and Macintosh computers have made efforts to give the Internet a graphical interface. New languages such as Java allow us to design very attractive graphical interfaces, but they require very efficient network connections to work properly. Much still remains to be done in that regard.

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From the birth of the personal computer to date, we have experienced a dramatic evolution in the capacity of computing equipment. As an example, processors have evolved from 4Mhz to more than 1Ghz, screens only displayed 16 colors and now display 16 million colors. Memory went from 64 Kilobytes to 1 Gigabyte, disks went from 140 Kilobytes to hundreds of Gigabytes. New proposals for the interface have emerged: we can write in handwriting and the computer converts our writing into textual characters. We can exchange information between the computer and portable personal organizers. Voice recognition allows you to give spoken instructions to the operating system and make certain programs allow dictation to be taken, thus avoiding having to write. The computer is capable of reading for us using different voices, whether male or female, and with appropriate accents for different languages. We can easily create animations or insert and edit movies, photographs or music on the computer to later be used in presentations, burn CDs and/or DVDs or publish them on the Internet. The graphical interface allows us to customize our computer to our taste and preference and makes it easier for us to interact with all these existing peripheral elements.

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Apple, for its part, is publishing a new operating system, the X (10 in Roman numerals). This system solidifies the previous system by providing advantages in its functionality, protecting memory and allowing several applications to run in parallel, allowing different users to interact simultaneously with the same information. The graphical interface has been decorated with a concept called Aqua, under the principle that current computing requires both functionality and aesthetics. For its part, Microsoft is working on a new Windows XP operating system, with features very similar to Apple's X.

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And for the future? I remember a video published by Apple where they show a wireless device that is like the covers of a book without pages. When you open it, two screens are shown, one on each of the covers. On the left screen, a movie of my personal assistant appears. It can be a man, woman, child, young person or adult. Colloquially he tells me in my language and with a good accent, that in my absence Dr. Jones called me who is in Brazil doing a study on rainfall. I ask my assistant to contact Dr. Jones, and a video conference is established on the second screen of the device. The Dr., after greeting me, shows me a map on the screen with graphs of rainfall in Brazil. After exchanging opinions, I make some changes that modify the graphics on the map. When we both reached an agreement, we said goodbye, saying that the next time I am in Mexico we will have dinner together, and we end our communication. When I finished, my personal assistant told me that while I was working with Dr. Jones, my mother called me to ask if I had already eaten.

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I think we are already very close to the future.