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I've always been curious whether choices in Mac OS X might have been (unintentionally) influenced by RISC OS. I believe there were a disproportionate number of

I've always been curious whether choices in Mac OS X might have been (unintentionally) influenced by RISC OS. I believe there were a disproportionate number of Brits on the HI team at Apple. The stand-outs to me are the use of blue folder icons and the Dock. https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/user/custom/Acorn/3rdParty/RetroKit/VIDCEnhancer/screenshots/RISCOS3-800x600.png https://www.retro-kit.co.uk/user/custom/Acorn/3rdParty/Retro...

fidotron 2mo ago
There was persistent noise even back in the 90s that the icon bar was inspiration for the Windows task bar in Win95. Quite the basis for it, or if it was nonsense, no idea. (HN has previously surfaced some serious Acorn related historical surprises, so someone here may actually know). What has been quite surprising over the years is how violently many people raised with Open/Save dialogs hate the Risc OS filer and approach to saving and loading files.
- timthorn 2mo ago
  Paul Fellows absolutely claims that. From https://astrospeakers.org/provider/paul-fellows https://astrospeakers.org/provider/paul-fellows : > He worked on the first generation of home computers and lead the design of the RiscOS operating system for the ARM processor, including inventing the apps and icon bar user interface that has since spread to phones and computers across the world
- rjmunro 2mo ago
  Open and save dialogs are insane. Let's make a whole other finder that's completely different to the main one we use to navigate files. The RISC OS approach is like a million times better. The only thing I would add is a context menu to create a new file of whatever kind at this location, like The "New" menu in windows.
  - lproven 2mo ago
    > Let's make a whole other finder that's completely different to the main one we use to navigate files. In my retrospective for the original Mac's 40th anniversary, I explained the technical limitations that forced this design: https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2024/01/29/the-real-significance-of-apples-macintosh/629857 https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2024/01/29/the-real-sign...
lproven 2mo ago
Many. A decade & a half ago, I put the original project team lead in touch with the London user group, which resulted in this talk: https://www.rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2012/PaulFellows/ https://www.rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2012/PaulFellows/ A decade later, I moderated a virtual interview with him and the surviving core team members: https://www.theregister.com/software/2022/06/23/how-risc-os-happened-as-told-by-original-acorn-arthur-lead/265803 https://www.theregister.com/software/2022/06/23/how-risc-os-... One of the core team got head-hunted to NeXT in the USA. He took his Archimedes running RISC OS with him. Reportedly, he demonstrated it to his colleagues, and presto, the following beta of NeXTstep had this new "Dock" that was much like the Acorn RISC OS "icon bar".

fidotron 2mo ago

There was persistent noise even back in the 90s that the icon bar was inspiration for the Windows task bar in Win95. Quite the basis for it, or if it was nonsense, no idea. (HN has previously surfaced some serious Acorn related historical surprises, so someone here may actually know). What has been quite surprising over the years is how violently many people raised with Open/Save dialogs hate the Risc OS filer and approach to saving and loading files.

timthorn 2mo ago
Paul Fellows absolutely claims that. From https://astrospeakers.org/provider/paul-fellows https://astrospeakers.org/provider/paul-fellows : > He worked on the first generation of home computers and lead the design of the RiscOS operating system for the ARM processor, including inventing the apps and icon bar user interface that has since spread to phones and computers across the world
rjmunro 2mo ago
Open and save dialogs are insane. Let's make a whole other finder that's completely different to the main one we use to navigate files. The RISC OS approach is like a million times better. The only thing I would add is a context menu to create a new file of whatever kind at this location, like The "New" menu in windows.
- lproven 2mo ago
  > Let's make a whole other finder that's completely different to the main one we use to navigate files. In my retrospective for the original Mac's 40th anniversary, I explained the technical limitations that forced this design: https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2024/01/29/the-real-significance-of-apples-macintosh/629857 https://www.theregister.com/on-prem/2024/01/29/the-real-sign...

lproven 2mo ago

Many. A decade & a half ago, I put the original project team lead in touch with the London user group, which resulted in this talk: https://www.rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2012/PaulFellows/ https://www.rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2012/PaulFellows/ A decade later, I moderated a virtual interview with him and the surviving core team members: https://www.theregister.com/software/2022/06/23/how-risc-os-happened-as-told-by-original-acorn-arthur-lead/265803 https://www.theregister.com/software/2022/06/23/how-risc-os-... One of the core team got head-hunted to NeXT in the USA. He took his Archimedes running RISC OS with him. Reportedly, he demonstrated it to his colleagues, and presto, the following beta of NeXTstep had this new "Dock" that was much like the Acorn RISC OS "icon bar".