aliquote.org

December 22, 2020

The Macintosh was designed under a number of constraints, including: (1) It needed to sell to “naive users,” that is, users without any previous computer experience. (2) It was targeted at a narrow range of applications (mostly office work, though entertainment and multimedia applications have been added later in ways that sometimes break slightly with the standard interface). (3) It controlled relatively weak computational resources (originally a non-networked computer with 128KB RAM, a 400KB storage device, and a dot-matrix printer). (4) It was supported by highly impoverished communication channels between the user and the computer (initially a small black-and-white screen with poor audio output, no audio input, and no other sensors than the keyboard and a one-button mouse). (5) It was a standalone machine that at most was connected to a printer. — The Anti-Mac Interface