Overview

BRUCE TOGNAZZINI

Apple Computer, Inc.

(The views expressed in this chapter are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or official position of Apple Computer, Inc.)

Introduction

The Macintosh Computer has enjoyed a high degree of software consistency. Some of this consistency has been achieved through Apple Computer, Inc.'s own careful planning. Apple can certainly claim to have begun the ball rolling by offering a carefully constructed, perceptually oriented interface from the first day of release. But much of the credit belongs outside Apple, to the developers who create the vast majority of Macintosh applications, the members of the press, who have been vigilant in their expectation of rigid consistency, and the end-users, who have demanded a level of consistency not seen before on computers.

This chapter examines many of the elements that have aided the cause of consistency. Some of them have to do with the realities of hardware and software. Surely an underpinning of the consistency found on the Macintosh can be traced to the Toolkit: on the Macintosh, it is far easier to create a program that conforms to the Apple Interface Guidelines than to create one that doesn't.

Many of these elements, though, have nothing to do with hardware or software, but, rather, with people. Without a willingness on the part of so many to embrace the ideal of consistency, our efforts at Apple would surely have failed.

Apple's current Desktop Interface is today applicable across all Apple computers.