Photos: A look at the Lisa desktop
Apple makes some breakthroughs, including menu bars and double-clicking, and the UI starts to look like a Mac.
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
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 Herztfeld, Atkinson gave CNET News.com permission to republish them here.
This picture and the following two illustrate the Lisa desktop, circa late 1980, with a tab-shaped title, followed by a menu bar attached to the window. Windows could be reduced to tabs on the desktop. The development team has also changed the name of the clipboard (or waste basket, as it had been called) to "the scrap," an old typesetting term.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Another shot of the Lisa desktop, from around the end of 1980, with a tab-shaped title, followed by a menu bar attached to the window.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
The Lisa desktop, circa the end of 1980.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Herztfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Atkinson's notes on this picture mention the first use of double-clicking to open and close windows.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
A real breakthrough, with the menu bar appearing at the top of the screen instead of the top of each window. The menu bar contains the menus of the "active folder," which is the top-most window. By this point, the grow icon found its way to the bottom right, at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical scrollbars, which stuck. This is the first picture that's really recognizable as the interface of the shipping Macintosh.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
By now, it's early 1981, and things are beginning to shape up. This picture shows a window with scrollbars that look a lot like the ones that shipped.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
This folder illustrates split views, which were used by Lisa's spreadsheet application.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
The first appearance of a dialog box, which at the time ran the entire length of the screen, just below the menu bar.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
With the basic window structure stabilizing, Atkinson turned his attention back to the graphics routines. He worked more on the Sketch program (the forerunner to MacPaint); the snowman drawing is a clue that it's now winter 1981.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
An example of normal text.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Atkinson added algorithmic text styles to the graphics, including bold, italic, outline and shadow, seen in the following photos...
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Italicized text.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Text with italics and highlighting effects.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Outlined text.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
Apple celebrates 30 years
«Back to main storyEvolution of the Mac interface--Gallery 3
Shadow effects.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bill Atkinson. Captions adapted from Andy Hertzfeld's book "Revolution in the Valley."
For the fourth and final gallery in this series, click here.