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‘Took out usability features to make them "look nicer"’ is exactly how Steve Jobs gave us the double-click, undiscoverable and timing-sensitive.
by kps 5mo ago
‘Took out usability features to make them "look nicer"’ is exactly how Steve Jobs gave us the double-click, undiscoverable and timing-sensitive.
- dspillett 5mo agoDouble-click came out of Xerox's research park. Apply might have been the first to put that into a popular desktop PC solution, but it wasn't their design any more than the rest of the system they copied. There are arguments that a second button was a much better idea, but that would still not be immediately discoverable and even with many buttons in modern solutions we _still_ have double-clicking.
- graemep 5mo agoEverything I have read about this suggests it was Apple. e.g. https://www.folklore.org/Busy_Being_Born.html https://www.folklore.org/Busy_Being_Born.html
- rahoulb 5mo agoMinor correction - Xerox knew they could not commercialise their invention so they wanted someone to take it off their hands. So Apple didn't copy - they paid for it (in stock, not cash) - and if you've ever used a Smalltalk environment you'll know that what Apple actually shipped (in the Lisa and then the Mac) is a _lot_ of work done over the top of what Xerox had.
- kps 5mo agoIt may have been Tajo (XDE) though a quick search doesn't find any documentation of multi-click _older_ than Apple's. Star definitely didn't have multi-click.
- abanana 5mo agoI've always heard it came from Xerox PARC, but even if it originated at Apple, it would have been one of their OS devs. It's nuts how the cult of Steve Jobs leads some to label him as the inventor of everything.
- Anonyneko 5mo agoAnd something my older relatives have trouble with to this day, no matter how much I adjust their double-click timing settings...
- graemep 5mo agoI have most things set .to single click to activate.