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Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 1
Bill Atkinson was Apple Computer's main developer of the user interface that first appeared on the Lisa and later on the Mac. A passionate photographer, Atkinson had the foresight in the late '70s and early '80s to document his UI work for Apple in a series of Polaroids.
The photos were published by another Mac pioneer, Andy Hertzfeld, in his book, "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made." Through Hertzfeld, Atkinson gave CNET News.com permission to republish them here.
The first picture in Atkinson's notebook is from the Apple II Pascal project. The high-performance graphics routines he wrote for Apple II Pascal in the fall of 1978 led into his initial work on the Lisa.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Through the years
Time line: Three decades of Apple innovation The products, people and events that shaped the Mac maker.
Photos: Birth of the Mac interface
Gallery 1: Early fonts, graphics Historic Polaroids chart evolution of the user interface.
Gallery 2: Radical shift Soft-key based UI becomes mouse/windows-based.
Gallery 3: Lisa desktop Creating double-click, menu bars and more.
Gallery 4: Sketching out the Mac Before MacPaint there was LisaGraf.
Photos: Mac fans unite
Postcards from the faithful What Apple products mean to CNET News.com readers.
Cult of Mac Apple devotees have a style all their own.
Videos:
Wozniak on early Apples Company co-founder talks about building computers with cheap parts.
'It was like working at Disneyland' Former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki on the company's early days.
Perspective:
Sizzle may be subjective, but Apple's definitely got it, says CNET News.com's Charles Cooper.
Poll
Credits
Editors: Leslie Katz, Scott Ard
Copy editors: Edward Moyer, Jennifer Guevin
Production: Bernie McGinn, Andrew Lottmann
Design: Michelle White, Ellen Ng
