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this is wonderful. it's especially interesting how dramatically different Apple's idea of what a computer user is and wants to do vs. how IBM viewed it. They

this is wonderful. it's especially interesting how dramatically different Apple's idea of what a computer user is and wants to do vs. how IBM viewed it. They are coming at it from two fundamentally different mindsets. a full PDF can be found here: http://www.maccaps.com/MacCaps/DIY_Information_files/Macintosh_Manual_1984.pdf http://www.maccaps.com/MacCaps/DIY_Information_files/Macinto...

userbinator 8y ago
Ironic that one of the sentences in the introduction is "With Macintosh, you're in charge." and there's plenty of references to "your Macintosh". Ditto for the IBM PC/AT manual I linked to in another comment here, although the latter explicitly mentions near the very beginning that it has built-in BASIC (and the manual for that is also supplied) while the Mac manual never mentions programming until the very end where it briefly references the Programmer's Switch and warns users not to use it. Apple makes it difficult from the beginning to do anything other than use the computer as an appliance, while IBM seemed to be the exact opposite.
- wpietri 8y ago
  It's not a bad observation. But for most people, computers are appliances. Apple's insight was to have computers serve people, rather than insisting that the people should serve their computers. I write this from a Linux laptop, so obviously my preferences are different. But I recognize that I'm part of a relatively narrow niche. And I'll note that Apple is still making personal computers. If you include their phones (which I do) then they have hundreds of millions of daily users. Whereas IBM got out of the personal computer business long ago because they couldn't compete.
- foobar1962 8y ago
  It’s hard to over state how much easier to learn and use Macs were back then, compared to any other computer. I used to teach computers in the early 1990s before Windows 3.1 was popular, and the main PC apps like Lotus 123 and WordPerfect were impossible to learn without the keyboard templates that had the key-presses printed in them you needed to do anything including edit, print and save. Each app had its own key presses and the publishers fiercely protected them to ensure competitors were NOT copying them. Then came the Mac and you learned to print in one app, you knew it for EVERY OTHER MAC APP. At the time developers couldn’t understand why such functions (and appearance) were standardised and many considered it negatively, as in “Apple restricting my creativity and telling me what to do.”
- kalleboo 8y ago
  What's interesting is how much of a departure from the Apple II it was. The Apple II came with very technical documentation, such as the assembly listings of the ROM monitor. Of course later the Mac started shipping with HyperCard which was an absolutely fantastic development environment for amateurs.

userbinator 8y ago

Ironic that one of the sentences in the introduction is "With Macintosh, you're in charge." and there's plenty of references to "your Macintosh". Ditto for the IBM PC/AT manual I linked to in another comment here, although the latter explicitly mentions near the very beginning that it has built-in BASIC (and the manual for that is also supplied) while the Mac manual never mentions programming until the very end where it briefly references the Programmer's Switch and warns users not to use it. Apple makes it difficult from the beginning to do anything other than use the computer as an appliance, while IBM seemed to be the exact opposite.

wpietri 8y ago
It's not a bad observation. But for most people, computers are appliances. Apple's insight was to have computers serve people, rather than insisting that the people should serve their computers. I write this from a Linux laptop, so obviously my preferences are different. But I recognize that I'm part of a relatively narrow niche. And I'll note that Apple is still making personal computers. If you include their phones (which I do) then they have hundreds of millions of daily users. Whereas IBM got out of the personal computer business long ago because they couldn't compete.
foobar1962 8y ago
It’s hard to over state how much easier to learn and use Macs were back then, compared to any other computer. I used to teach computers in the early 1990s before Windows 3.1 was popular, and the main PC apps like Lotus 123 and WordPerfect were impossible to learn without the keyboard templates that had the key-presses printed in them you needed to do anything including edit, print and save. Each app had its own key presses and the publishers fiercely protected them to ensure competitors were NOT copying them. Then came the Mac and you learned to print in one app, you knew it for EVERY OTHER MAC APP. At the time developers couldn’t understand why such functions (and appearance) were standardised and many considered it negatively, as in “Apple restricting my creativity and telling me what to do.”
kalleboo 8y ago
What's interesting is how much of a departure from the Apple II it was. The Apple II came with very technical documentation, such as the assembly listings of the ROM monitor. Of course later the Mac started shipping with HyperCard which was an absolutely fantastic development environment for amateurs.