Jef Raskin: Jef Raskin, the software developer and renaissance man behind Apple Computer Inc's pioneering Macintosh personal computer, has died of pancreatic cancer, aged 61.
Raskin joined the fledgling Apple as employee No 31 in 1978 after graduating from State University of New York at Stony Brook with degrees in maths and philosophy. He earned a master's degree in computer science at Pennsylvania State University.
At Apple, he first worked as manager of publications and later became head of the team developing the Macintosh computer.
Coming at a time when computers were driven by text menus and complicated commands that had to be memorised, the Macintosh was the first to successfully use the now-familiar "graphical user interface" featuring icons and windows on the computer screen.
Raskin wanted a computer that would be priced affordably, targeted at consumers and extremely easy to use.
Besides overseeing the development, Raskin is considered responsible for the machine's drag-and-drop feature, a user-friendly innovation later adopted by other computer operating systems, including Microsoft Windows.
He named the project after his favourite kind of apple, the McIntosh, and the name Macintosh lives on in the PowerMac, iMac and Mac mini computer sold by Apple today.
But Raskin believed that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was muscling in on the Macintosh project and resigned from the company in 1982, two years before the Macintosh was released. Raskin and Jobs had since been reconciled.
Jennie Bourne, a film-maker who is making a documentary about Raskin and interviewed him extensively, recalls: "He couldn't sit in a chair without analysing everything around him and how it works. In some of our interviews he's analysing the switches on an electric blanket or the Roomba mobile vacuum cleaner. He's always analysing [ to determine] if things are serving the functions they're supposed to."
After leaving Apple, Raskin formed his own company, Information Appliance, and developed a computer called the Canon Cat, with backing from Canon Inc.
It sold only 20,000 copies before Canon ended its support, so the device never gained widespread support.
His latest project was "Archy", a computer interface designed to operate similarly on Windows, Apple or other operating systems.
Raskin was also known as an accomplished musician and artist. He performed on the recorder, rebuilt and installed an entire Swiss pipe organ in his home and taught electronic music and other subjects at the University of California, San Diego, before joining Apple.
He also created works of sculpture that reflected his sense of humour, such as a piece of glass decorated with suction-cup darts, which he called Objet Dart. Some of his work was shown at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Raskin, who dropped the second "f" from his first name early in his career, insisted that his children call him Jef, to underscore that he was their friend as well as their father. He is survived by his wife, Linda Blum, son Aza and daughters Aviva, Aenea and Rebecca.
Jef Raskin: born March 9th, 1943 ; died February 26 th, 2005