4 ms·

Did they really form an entire company around a single text editor feature?

system2 4y ago
90s
samwillis 4y ago
On the surface yes, but the reality is that they formed a company around the idea of increasing the productivity of your typists. The people making the purchasing decisions for IT weren't the people using it, they are looking a the bottom line. If they could convince executives that their technology made their types x% more efficient, they would win the sale over the competitor. Companies were in the process of moving from having typists on typewriters to typists on computers in the mid 80s, purchasing a computer was "purchasing a text editor", that was the whole point of buying one.
mavhc 4y ago
No, it's actually a single application OS that accepts plugins, so instead of buying a spreadsheet, you add spreadsheet functions to The Text Editor, you learn one application, and add features to that instead of buying new applications.
- 0x445442 4y ago
  Aza talked at length about this when he was working on Enso. The premise is that it’s inefficient from a UI perspective to have an OS with a bunch of silo’d applications that aren’t easily able to share data. I agree with this and I think it’s an underlying reason why power users are drawn to the terminal or go to great lengths to live in EMACS. They’re drawn to the ubiquitous nature of those UIs over the disjointed desktop experience or the schizophrenic web experience. In fact, in addition to Enso, Aza Raskin worked on a Firefox plugin called Ubiquity.
  - mavhc 4y ago
    https://croftnuisk.co.uk/coltsoft-docs/fireworkz/GSGuide/windows/content/gsg01.html https://croftnuisk.co.uk/coltsoft-docs/fireworkz/GSGuide/win... is a Wordprocessor/Spreadsheet/Database in one. https://textease-studio-ct.apponic.com/ https://textease-studio-ct.apponic.com/ is a DTP/WP/Spreadsheet/Database/Drawing/Painting/Slideshow/Movie Editor/Turtle Logo program in one Neither had the ability for 3rd party plugins though
olalonde 4y ago
No, the product was a computer, the Canon Cat[0]. The leap keys were one of its unique features. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat
- andai 4y ago
  >To avoid a mode, the Canon Cat was designed without a power switch. The reason was that products react to gestures differently, depending on whether they are on or off, and a power switch therefore introduces a mode. To save energy, the Cat went into a low-powered sleep state if it was not used for five minutes. To make sure that sleep was not a mode, any user action or incoming message turned on the Cat without perceptible delay; furthermore, the user action that turned it on was not lost but took effect just as if the machine had not been in the sleep state. >In many systems, computers come out of sleep mode at the touch of a key, but the keystroke that turns them on—and any keystrokes made subsequently but before the system is fully awake—are lost. Not losing any keystrokes turned out to be an elegant feature. For example, if you had a sudden inspiration or had to take a note during a telephone call, you could just start typing without worrying about the state of the Cat or even looking at the display. It is a characteristic of modelessness that, once you become habituated, you do not have to think or plan before you act; your attention stays on the content of your work. The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
  - andai 4y ago
    I believe the Cat also had (invented?) autosave. From the same book: >I am not paranoid, just realistic. Yet these elaborate procedures [constant saving and backing up] should be unnecessary. The system should treat all user input as sacred and —to paraphrase Asimov's first law of robotics, "A robot shall not harm a human, or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm" (Asimov 1977, p. 44). The first law of interface design should be: A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.
  - retrocryptid 4y ago
    The Cat absolutely has a power switch. "Low Power Mode" isn't as low as you might think. The screen is still active and instead of completely blanking randomly moves the text "Canon Cat" around. That being said... I've never known it to randomly access the disk when the screen is blanked. And I try not to stress the power supply by turning it on and off a lot. I probably only use the thing a couple hours every other / every third day. Surprisingly, I've only had to replace the power supply once.
gjvc 4y ago
For those scoffing at this, you might be interested to know that the brains behind this was Jef Raskin, he of the book "The Humane Interface" [0,1] and was responsible for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project. [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-Interactive/dp/0201379376 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designi... [2] https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-2/mac-history/2012-02-01/how-jef-raskin-started-the-macintosh-project https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-2/mac-history/2012...
retrocryptid 4y ago
No. The LEAP Technology was one of the more obvious differences with previous text environments. For me, the more interesting feature of the Cat / Swyft is it loads the environment exactly where you were when you last saved it to disk. Sure, MacOS-X and Chrome do a half-hearted attempt to do the same thing these days, but in 1987 this was a revolutionary idea. My guess is they focused on the LEAP stuff 'cause you can't make a whole video about booting up to where you last left off. Other things I like about my Cat: * Integrated FORTH development environment. * After getting used to the "text / document oriented interface" I kind of like it. I turn my Cat on and just start typing. Later on I figure out where I want to move that text to. * The dual cursor thing makes it easy to figure out what you're going to delete when you press either delete or backspace (one deletes the character in front of the "regular" cursor, the other deletes the character under the "regular" cursor.) But a few things I don't like: * I love LEAP, but would also love to have had arrow keys. * Connectivity to my leenucks box is kind of bad. I had to write my own FORTH comms package. * Importing other people's code into your environment is a confusing process of swapping disks and trying to not confuse yourself or your Cat. And Surprisingly: * I've had my Cat for decades and I've yet to lose data. Just remember to hit the "Disk" control key before ejecting the floppy and you'll be fine. * Virtually all my floppies still work.

90s

On the surface yes, but the reality is that they formed a company around the idea of increasing the productivity of your typists. The people making the purchasing decisions for IT weren't the people using it, they are looking a the bottom line. If they could convince executives that their technology made their types x% more efficient, they would win the sale over the competitor. Companies were in the process of moving from having typists on typewriters to typists on computers in the mid 80s, purchasing a computer was "purchasing a text editor", that was the whole point of buying one.

mavhc 4y ago

No, it's actually a single application OS that accepts plugins, so instead of buying a spreadsheet, you add spreadsheet functions to The Text Editor, you learn one application, and add features to that instead of buying new applications.

0x445442 4y ago
Aza talked at length about this when he was working on Enso. The premise is that it’s inefficient from a UI perspective to have an OS with a bunch of silo’d applications that aren’t easily able to share data. I agree with this and I think it’s an underlying reason why power users are drawn to the terminal or go to great lengths to live in EMACS. They’re drawn to the ubiquitous nature of those UIs over the disjointed desktop experience or the schizophrenic web experience. In fact, in addition to Enso, Aza Raskin worked on a Firefox plugin called Ubiquity.
- mavhc 4y ago
  https://croftnuisk.co.uk/coltsoft-docs/fireworkz/GSGuide/windows/content/gsg01.html https://croftnuisk.co.uk/coltsoft-docs/fireworkz/GSGuide/win... is a Wordprocessor/Spreadsheet/Database in one. https://textease-studio-ct.apponic.com/ https://textease-studio-ct.apponic.com/ is a DTP/WP/Spreadsheet/Database/Drawing/Painting/Slideshow/Movie Editor/Turtle Logo program in one Neither had the ability for 3rd party plugins though

olalonde 4y ago

No, the product was a computer, the Canon Cat[0]. The leap keys were one of its unique features. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat

andai 4y ago
>To avoid a mode, the Canon Cat was designed without a power switch. The reason was that products react to gestures differently, depending on whether they are on or off, and a power switch therefore introduces a mode. To save energy, the Cat went into a low-powered sleep state if it was not used for five minutes. To make sure that sleep was not a mode, any user action or incoming message turned on the Cat without perceptible delay; furthermore, the user action that turned it on was not lost but took effect just as if the machine had not been in the sleep state. >In many systems, computers come out of sleep mode at the touch of a key, but the keystroke that turns them on—and any keystrokes made subsequently but before the system is fully awake—are lost. Not losing any keystrokes turned out to be an elegant feature. For example, if you had a sudden inspiration or had to take a note during a telephone call, you could just start typing without worrying about the state of the Cat or even looking at the display. It is a characteristic of modelessness that, once you become habituated, you do not have to think or plan before you act; your attention stays on the content of your work. The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin
- andai 4y ago
  I believe the Cat also had (invented?) autosave. From the same book: >I am not paranoid, just realistic. Yet these elaborate procedures [constant saving and backing up] should be unnecessary. The system should treat all user input as sacred and —to paraphrase Asimov's first law of robotics, "A robot shall not harm a human, or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm" (Asimov 1977, p. 44). The first law of interface design should be: A computer shall not harm your work or, through inaction, allow your work to come to harm.
- retrocryptid 4y ago
  The Cat absolutely has a power switch. "Low Power Mode" isn't as low as you might think. The screen is still active and instead of completely blanking randomly moves the text "Canon Cat" around. That being said... I've never known it to randomly access the disk when the screen is blanked. And I try not to stress the power supply by turning it on and off a lot. I probably only use the thing a couple hours every other / every third day. Surprisingly, I've only had to replace the power supply once.

gjvc 4y ago

For those scoffing at this, you might be interested to know that the brains behind this was Jef Raskin, he of the book "The Humane Interface" [0,1] and was responsible for conceiving and starting the Macintosh project. [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Humane_Interface [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designing-Interactive/dp/0201379376 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humane-Interface-Directions-Designi... [2] https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-2/mac-history/2012-02-01/how-jef-raskin-started-the-macintosh-project https://www.mac-history.net/apple-history-2/mac-history/2012...

retrocryptid 4y ago

No. The LEAP Technology was one of the more obvious differences with previous text environments. For me, the more interesting feature of the Cat / Swyft is it loads the environment exactly where you were when you last saved it to disk. Sure, MacOS-X and Chrome do a half-hearted attempt to do the same thing these days, but in 1987 this was a revolutionary idea. My guess is they focused on the LEAP stuff 'cause you can't make a whole video about booting up to where you last left off. Other things I like about my Cat: * Integrated FORTH development environment. * After getting used to the "text / document oriented interface" I kind of like it. I turn my Cat on and just start typing. Later on I figure out where I want to move that text to. * The dual cursor thing makes it easy to figure out what you're going to delete when you press either delete or backspace (one deletes the character in front of the "regular" cursor, the other deletes the character under the "regular" cursor.) But a few things I don't like: * I love LEAP, but would also love to have had arrow keys. * Connectivity to my leenucks box is kind of bad. I had to write my own FORTH comms package. * Importing other people's code into your environment is a confusing process of swapping disks and trying to not confuse yourself or your Cat. And Surprisingly: * I've had my Cat for decades and I've yet to lose data. Just remember to hit the "Disk" control key before ejecting the floppy and you'll be fine. * Virtually all my floppies still work.