View source for Jef Raskin

{{short description|American computer scientist (1943–2005)}}

{{Lead too short|date=June 2020}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}

{{Infobox person
| image              = Jef Raskin holding Canon Cat model.png
| alt                = Jef Raskin holds a model of the Canon Cat.
| caption            = Raskin holds a model of the [[Canon Cat]] in January 1999.
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1943|03|09}}
| birth_place        = [[New York City]], U.S.
| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2005|02|26|1943|03|09}}
| death_place        = [[Pacifica, California]], U.S.
| nationality        = 
| other_names        = 
| known_for          = [[Human–computer interaction|Human–computer interface]] expert
| occupation         = 
| spouse             = {{marriage|Linda S. Blum |1982}}
| children           = 3, including [[Aza Raskin]]
| parents            = 
}}
'''Jef Raskin''' (born '''Jeff Raskin'''; March 9, 1943 – February 26, 2005) was an American [[Human–computer interaction|human–computer interface]] expert who conceived and began leading the [[Macintosh 128K|Macintosh]] project at [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] in the late 1970s.

==Early life and education==
Jef Raskin was born in [[New York City]] to a secular Jewish family,<ref>{{Cite web |title=DigiBarn Stories: Jef Raskin on "Meeting Merlin" |url=https://www.digibarn.com/stories/raskin-merlin8/index.htm |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.digibarn.com}}</ref> whose surname is a [[matronymic]] from "Raske", [[Yiddish]] nickname for Rachel. He received a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in [[mathematics]] and a [[Bachelor of Science|BS]] in [[physics]] with minors in [[philosophy]] and [[music]] from [[Stony Brook University]].<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org">{{cite web |url=https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=941396 |title=A conversation with Jef Raskin |date=July 2003 |website=Ubiquity}}</ref> In 1967, he received a [[master's degree]] in [[computer science]] from [[Pennsylvania State University]], after having switched from [[mathematical logic]] due to differences of opinion with his advisor. Even though he had completed work typical for a PhD, the university was not accredited for a PhD in computer science.<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org"/> The first original computer application he wrote was a music application as part of his master's thesis.

Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the [[University of California, San Diego]] (UCSD), but quit to teach art, photography, and computer science there. He worked as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. There, he presented shows about toys as works of art.<ref name="toy valley"/> Raskin announced his resignation from the assistant professorship by flying over the Chancellor's house in a hot air balloon.<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org" /> He was awarded a [[National Science Foundation]] grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center, which used several [[16-bit computing|16-bit]] [[Data General Nova]] computers and [[Cathode-ray tube|CRTs]], rather than the more common Teletype [[teleprinter]]s.

Along with his undergraduate student Jonathan (Jon) Collins, Raskin developed the [[FLOW (programming language)|FLOW]] programming language for use in teaching programming to the art and humanities students.  The language was first used at the Humanities Summer Training Institute held in 1970 at the [[University of Kansas]] in [[Lawrence, Kansas]]. The language has only seven statements ({{code|COMMENT}}, <code>GET IT</code>, <code>PRINT IT</code>, <code>PRINT "text"</code>, <code>JUMP TO</code>, <code>IF IT IS " " JUMP TO</code>, and <code>STOP</code>) and can not manipulate numbers. The language was first implemented in [[Fortran]] by Collins in under a week. Later versions of the language utilized "typing amplification" in which only the first letter is typed and the computer provides the balance of the instruction eliminating typing errors. It was also the basis for programming classes taught by Raskin and Collins in the UCSD Visual Arts Department.

Raskin curated several art shows including one featuring his collection of unusual toys, and presenting toys as works of art.<ref name="toy valley"/> During this period, he changed the spelling of his name from "Jeff" to "Jef" after having met Jon Collins and liking the lack of extraneous letters.

Raskin occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]''. He formed a company named Bannister and Crun, which was named for two characters playing in the [[BBC]] radio comedy ''[[The Goon Show]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt |title=The Father Of The Macintosh |work=Folklore.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101055018/http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt |archive-date=November 1, 2007}}</ref>

==Career history==
===Apple===
====Contractor writer====
Raskin first met Apple Computer co-founders [[Steve Jobs]] and [[Steve Wozniak]] in their garage workshop following the debut of their [[Apple II]] personal computer at the first [[West Coast Computer Faire]]. Jobs hired Raskin's company Bannister and Crun to write the Apple II [[BASIC]] Programming Manual. Raskin said "I was talking fifty dollars a page. They talked fifty dollars for the whole manual." Upon the Apple II unit with the serial number of "2", he reportedly wrote "a literate manual that became a standard for the young industry".<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|108}}

====Management====
In January 1978, Raskin joined Apple as Manager of Publications, the company's 31st employee. For some time he continued as Director of Publications and New Product Review, and also worked on packaging and other issues. He had concealed his degree in computer science, out of concern for cultural bias against academia among the hobby-driven personal computer industry. He explained, "If they had known ... they might not have let me in the company, because there was such an antiacademic bias in the early Apple days."<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|108}}

From his responsibility for documentation and testing, Raskin had great influence on early engineering projects. Because the Apple II only displayed uppercase characters on a 40-column screen, his department used the [[PolyMorphic Systems#System 8813|PolyMorphic Systems 8813]] (an Intel-8080-based machine running a proprietary operating system called Exec) to write documentation; this spurred the development of an 80-column display card and a suitable [[text editor]] for the Apple II. His experiences testing [[Applesoft BASIC]] inspired him to design a competing product, called Notzo BASIC, which was never implemented. When Wozniak developed the first [[Disk storage|disk drives]] for the Apple II, Raskin went back to his contacts at UCSD and encouraged them to port the UCSD [[UCSD Pascal|P-System]] [[operating system]], which incorporated a version of the [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal programming language]]. Apple later licensed and shipped it as [[Apple Pascal]].

Through this time, Raskin continually wrote memos about how the personal computer could become a true consumer appliance. While the [[Apple III]] was under development in 1978 and '79, Raskin was lobbying for Apple to create a radically different kind of computer that was designed from the start to be easy to use. In ''Computers by the Millions'', he stated that expandable computers like the Apple II were too complex, and development was difficult due to the unknown nature of the machine the program ran on.<ref name="mil">{{Cite web |title=DigiBarn Friends: Jef Raskin's writings - Computers by the Millions (1979) |url=https://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/writings/millions.html |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.digibarn.com}}</ref> The machine he envisioned was very different from the Macintosh that was eventually released and had much more in common with [[personal digital assistant|PDAs]] than modern [[desktop metaphor|desktop]]-based machines.

====Macintosh====
[[File:Macintosh 128k transparency.png|thumb|The launched [[Macintosh 128K|Macintosh]] has slight resemblance to Raskin's design.]]
Raskin started the [[Macintosh 128K|Macintosh]] project in 1979 to implement some of these ideas. He later hired his former student [[Bill Atkinson]] from UCSD to Apple, along with [[Andy Hertzfeld]] and [[Burrell Smith]] from the Apple Service Department, which was located in the same building as the Publications Department. Secretly bypassing Jobs's ego and authority by continually securing permission and funding directly at the executive level, Raskin created and solely supervised the Macintosh project for approximately its first year. This included selecting the name of his favorite apple, writing the mission document ''The Book of Macintosh'', securing office space, and recruiting and managing the original staff.<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|111}} Author Steven Levy said, "It was Raskin who provided the powerful vision of a computer whose legacy would be low cost, high utility, and a groundbreaking friendliness."<ref name="Insanely Great">{{cite book | first=Steven | last=Levy | author-link=Steven Levy | date=2000 | orig-year=1994 | publisher=Penguin Books | location=[[New York City]] | title=Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer That Changed Everything | isbn=0140291776 | oclc=474924791}}</ref>{{rp|122}}

The prototype was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small {{convert|9|in|mm|adj=on}} black-and-white character [[Cathode-ray tube|display]] and floppy drive, in a small case. It was text only, as Raskin disliked the computer mouse or anything else that could take his hands from the keyboard.<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|111}} Several basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine included logic to understand user intentions and switch programs dynamically. For instance, if the user simply started typing text it switched into editor mode, and if numbers are typed it switched to calculator mode. In many cases these switches were largely invisible to the user.

{{quote box | width=25% | align=right | text=It was clear that Macintosh was the most interesting thing at Apple—and Steve Jobs took it over. | source=Jef Raskin<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|111}}}}
In 1981, after the [[Apple Lisa|Lisa]] team had "kicked him out", [[Steve Jobs]]'s attention drew toward Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to combine the [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]]-inspired [[graphical user interface|GUI]]-based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance-computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept. [[Steve Wozniak]], who around then had been co-leading the Macintosh team with Raskin, was on hiatus from the company following a traumatic airplane accident, allowing Jobs to take managerial lead over the project.<ref name=TheVerge>{{cite web|title=Steve Wozniak on Newton, Tesla, and why the original Macintosh was a 'lousy' product|date=June 27, 2013 |url=https://www.theverge.com/2013/6/27/4468314/steve-wozniak-on-how-the-newton-changed-his-life|access-date=June 23, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312014832/http://www.theverge.com/2013/6/27/4468314/steve-wozniak-on-how-the-newton-changed-his-life|archive-date=March 12, 2016}}</ref>

Raskin is credited as one of the first to introduce Jobs and the Lisa engineers to the PARC concepts, though he ultimately dismissed PARC's technology and opposed the use of the mouse.<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|110}} Raskin claimed to have had continued direct input into the eventual Mac design, including the decision to use a one-button mouse as part of the Apple interface, instead of PARC's 3-button mouse.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Others, including [[Larry Tesler]], acknowledge his advocacy for a one-button mouse but say that it was a decision reached simultaneously by others at Apple who had stronger authority on the issue.{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} Raskin later stated that were he to redesign the mouse, it would have three clearly labeled buttons—two buttons on top marked "Select" and "Activate", and a "Grab" button on the side that could be used by squeezing the mouse.<ref>''The Humane Interface'' Appendix A, Pg. 209, last paragraph</ref> It has the three described buttons (two invisible), but they are assigned to different functions than Raskin specified for his own interface and can be customized.

In 2005,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.magpictures.com/stevejobsthelostinterview/ |title=Steve Jobs - The Lost Interview |access-date=November 20, 2012}}</ref> Macintosh project member [[Andy Hertzfeld]] remembered Raskin's reputation for often inaccurately claiming to have invented various technologies.  Raskin's resume from 2002 lends credence by stating he was "Creator of Macintosh computer at Apple Computer, Inc."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://humane.sourceforge.net/home/curriculum_vitae.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031003011354/http://humane.sourceforge.net/home/curriculum_vitae.html |archive-date=October 3, 2003 |title=Jef Raskin - Curriculum Vitae |date=January 8, 2002 |access-date=November 20, 2012}}</ref> Raskin conceived and solely supervised the Macintosh project for approximately its first year;<ref name="Insanely Great"/>{{rp|111}} however, Hertzfeld describes Raskin's relationship to the drastically different finished Mac product more like that of an "eccentric great uncle" than its father.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt|title=The Father Of The Macintosh|website=Folklore.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/October-2011/Steve-Jobs-Jef-Raskin-and-the-Humane-Interface/|title=Steve Jobs, Jef Raskin, and The Humane Interface|access-date=January 31, 2017|archive-date=October 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017151205/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/October-2011/Steve-Jobs-Jef-Raskin-and-the-Humane-Interface/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In Jobs's "Lost Interview" from 1996, he refers to the Macintosh as a product of team effort while acknowledging Raskin's early role.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/oct/25/steve-jobs-biography-walter-isaacson-review|title=Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson – review|last=Leith|first=Sam|date=October 25, 2011|website=the Guardian|access-date=July 7, 2016}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=September 2021}} Jobs reportedly co-opted some of Raskin's leadership philosophies, such as when he wrote the slogan on the Macintosh group's easel, "It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy."<ref name="Infinite Loop">{{cite book |author-link=Michael S. Malone |first=Michael S.|last=Malone|year=1999 |title=Infinite Loop |isbn=978-0-385-48684-2 |oclc=971131326 |url=https://archive.org/details/infiniteloophoww00malo |location=New York |publisher=Currency/Doubleday}}</ref>{{rp|page=271}}

Apple acknowledged Raskin's role after he had left the company by gifting him the millionth Macintosh computer, with an engraved brass plaque on the front.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Kahney |first1=Leander |title=More Antique Apples on the Block |url=https://www.wired.com/1999/06/more-antique-apples-on-the-block/ |magazine=Wired}}</ref>

===Pioneering the information appliance===
Raskin left Apple in 1982<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/business/jef-raskin-61-developer-of-apple-macintosh-is-dead.html |title=Jef Raskin, 61, Developer of Apple Macintosh, Is Dead |first=Andrea |last=Elliott|date=February 28, 2005 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> and formed Information Appliance, Inc. to implement some elements of his original Macintosh concept. The first product is the SwyftCard, a firmware card for the [[Apple II]] containing an integrated application suite, also released on a disk as SwyftWare. Information Appliance later developed the Swyft as a stand-alone laptop computer. Raskin licensed this design to [[Canon Inc.|Canon]], which shipped a similar desktop product as the [[Canon Cat]]. Released in 1987, the unit had an innovative interface that attracted much interest but it did not become a commercial success. Raskin claimed that its failure was due in some part to Steve Jobs, who successfully pitched Canon on the [[NeXT Computer]] at about the same time. It has also been suggested that Canon canceled the Cat due to internal rivalries within its divisions. After running a cryptic full-page advertisement in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' that the "Canon Cat is coming" months before it was available, Canon failed to follow through, never airing the completed TV advertisement at launch, only allowed the Cat to be sold by its typewriter sales people, and prevented Raskin from selling the Cat directly with a TV demonstration of how easy it was to use. Shortly thereafter, the stock market crash of 1987 so panicked Information Appliance's venture capitalists that they drained millions of dollars from the company, depriving it of the capital needed to be able to manufacture and sell the Swyft.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}

Raskin wrote a book, ''[[The Humane Interface]]'' (2000),<ref>Raskin, Jef 2000.''The Humane Interface'', Addison-Wesley {{ISBN|0-201-37937-6}}</ref> in which he developed his ideas about human-computer interfaces.

Raskin was a long-time member of BAYCHI, the Bay-Area Computer-Human Interface group, a professional organization for human-interface designers. He presented papers on his own work, reviewed the human interfaces of various consumer products (such as a [[BMW]] car he'd been asked to review), and discussed the work of his colleagues in various companies and universities.

At the start of the new millennium, Raskin undertook the building of a new computer interface based on his 30 years of work and research, called The Humane Environment, THE. On January 1, 2005, he renamed it [[Archy (software)|Archy]]. It is a system incarnating his concepts of the humane interface, by using [[Open-source model|open source]] elements within his rendition of a ZUI or [[Zooming User Interface]]. In the same period, Raskin accepted an appointment as adjunct professor of computer science at the [[University of Chicago]]'s Computer Science Department and, with [[Leo Irakliotis]], started designing a new curriculum on humane interfaces and computer enterprises.

His work is being extended and carried on by his son [[Aza Raskin]] at Humanized, a company that was started shortly after Raskin's death to continue his legacy. Humanized released Enso, a linguistic command-line interface, which is based on Jef's work and dedicated in his memory. In early 2008, Humanized became part of [[Mozilla Foundation|Mozilla]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/01/16/joining-mozilla/ |title=Humanized Joining Mozilla |publisher=Humanized Inc. |date=January 16, 2008 |access-date=August 25, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120152125/http://www.humanized.com/weblog/2008/01/16/joining-mozilla |archive-date=January 20, 2008 }}</ref>

The Archy project never included a functional ZUI, but a third party developed a commercial application called Raskin inspired by the same [[Zoomworld]] ZUI idea.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.macstories.net/reviews/raskin/|title=Raskin, A Finder Replacement for Mac|website=macstories.net|date=June 4, 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://raskinformac.com/|title=Raskin - Beyond Desktop - Raskin Beta|website=Raskin Apps / Media, Raskin Software LLC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-01-06 |title=Raskin für Mac: Dateien und Ordner aus der Vogelperspektive - NETZWELT |url=http://www.netzwelt.de/news/89980-raskin-mac-dateien-ordner-vogelperspektive.html |access-date=2025-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120106024334/http://www.netzwelt.de/news/89980-raskin-mac-dateien-ordner-vogelperspektive.html |archive-date=January 6, 2012 }}</ref>

====Cognetics====
Raskin expanded the meaning of the term "cognetics" in his book ''The Humane Interface'' to mean "the ergonomics of the mind". According to Raskin Center, "Cognetics brings interface design out of the mystic realm of guruism, transforming it into an engineering discipline with a rigorous theoretical framework."

The term cognetics had earlier been coined and trademarked by Charles Kreitzberg in 1982 when he started [[Cognetics Corporation]], one of the first user experience design companies.<ref>{{cite web |last=Anderson |first=Clifford |url=http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/volumes/2007/october/kreitzberg.html |title=Thumbnail: Charlie Kreitzberg |work=UPA Voice |date=October 2007 |access-date=June 24, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222154314/http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/upa_voice/volumes/2007/october/kreitzberg.html |archive-date=February 22, 2012}}</ref> It is also used to describe educational programs intended to foster thinking skills in grades 3-12 (US)<ref>Burr, J. et al., Cognetics: Thinking Skills Activities in Inventions/Technology and Science. Teacher's Manual and Student Manual. Philadelphia, PA: RBS Publications, 1992.</ref> and for Cognetics, Inc., an economic research firm founded by [[David L. Birch]], a professor at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFDF1639F932A35756C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | work=The New York Times | title=The Little Engine That Could | date=May 1, 1988 | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref>

Raskin discouraged using the informal term "[[intuition|intuitive]]" in user interface design, claiming that easy to use interfaces are often due to exposure to previous, similar systems, thus the term "familiar" should be preferred.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jef Raskin on "Intuitive Interfaces" |url=https://www.asktog.com/papers/raskinintuit.html |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.asktog.com}}</ref> Aiming for "intuitive" interfaces (based on reusing existing skills with interaction systems) could lead designers to discard a better design solution only because it would require a novel approach.

==Outside interests==
Raskin had interests other than computers. He conducted the San Francisco Chamber Opera Society and played various instruments, including the [[organ (music)|organ]] and the [[Recorder (musical instrument)|recorder]]. His artwork was displayed at New York's [[Museum of Modern Art]] as part of its permanent collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the University of California, San Diego. He received a patent for airplane wing construction,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/curriculum_vitae.html |title= Jef Raskin – Curriculum Vitae |access-date=April 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070720100442/http://jef.raskincenter.org/home/curriculum_vitae.html |archive-date= July 20, 2007 }}</ref> and designed and marketed radio controlled model [[Glider (aircraft)|gliders]].

He was an accomplished [[Archery|archer]], target shooter, bicycle racer and an occasional model race car driver.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}} He was a musician and composer, publishing a series of collected recorder studies using the pseudonym of Aabel Aabius.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}} In his later years he also wrote [[Freelancer|freelance]] articles for Macintosh magazines, such as ''Mac Home Journal'', and many modeling magazines, ''[[Forbes]]'', ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'', and computing journals.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}} One of his favorite pastimes was to play music with his children. He accompanied them on the piano while they played or sang while going through old [[Lead sheet|fake-books]] passed down from his father. They routinely improvised together.{{Citation needed|date=July 2016}}

Raskin owned Jef's Friends, a small company which made model airplane kits.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/files/RaskinJef.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191203232257/https://www.modelaircraft.org/sites/default/files/files/RaskinJef.pdf |archive-date=December 3, 2019 |url-status=live|title=The AMA History Project Presents: Autobiography of Jef Raskin|last=Raskin|first=Jef|date=2002|website=Academy of Model Aeronautics|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref><ref name="toy valley"/>

He was a toy designer. He designed Space Expander, a hanging cloth maze for a person to walk through. He designed Bloxes, a set of interlocking wood blocks.<ref name="toy valley">{{cite news | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | title=In High-Tech Silicon Valley, Entrepreneurs Turn to Toys | first=Andrew | last=Pollack | date=December 25, 1985 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/12/25/us/in-high-tech-silicon-valley-entrepreneurs-turn-to-toys.html | access-date=February 16, 2021}}</ref>

One of Raskin's instruments was the organ. In 1978 he published an article in ''[[Byte (magazine)|BYTE]]'' on using computers with the instrument.<ref name= "raskin197803">{{Cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1978-03/1978_03_BYTE_03-03_Computer_Music_Systems#page/n57/mode/2up | title=The Microcomputer and the Pipe Organ | work=BYTE | date=March 1978 | access-date=October 17, 2013 | last=Raskin | first=Jef | page=56}}</ref>

Raskin published a paper highly critical of pseudoscience in nursing, such as [[therapeutic touch]] and [[Martha E. Rogers#Nursing theory|Rogerian science]], wherein he said: "Unlike science, nursing theory has no built-in mechanisms for rejecting falsehoods, tautologies, and irrelevancies."<ref name= "Humbug">{{Cite journal | journal=Skeptical Inquirer | title=Rogerian nursing theory: A humbug in the halls of higher learning | date= 2000 | volume=24 | issue=5 | pages=30–35}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | last=Raskin |first =Jef |title=Humbug: Nursing Theory |url=http://www.jefraskin.com/forjef2/jefweb-compiled/published/NursingTheoryForSite.html | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010710223205/http://www.jefraskin.com/forjef2/jefweb-compiled/published/NursingTheoryForSite.html| archive-date=July 10, 2001 | access-date=December 14, 2015}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Jef Raskin married Linda S. Blum in 1982. They had three children together—[[Aza Raskin|Aza]], Aviva, and Aenea, with honorary surrogate siblings R. Fureigh and Jenna Mandis. In 1985, Raskin described his house as "practically one large playground", with secret doors and passageways, an auditorium that seats 185, and a model airplane room. He said, "I decided when I grew up I was not going to give up the things I liked doing, and I've not."<ref name="toy valley"/>

He was diagnosed with [[pancreatic cancer]] in December 2004 and died in [[Pacifica, California]], on February 26, 2005, at age 61.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/28/business/28raskin.html?_r=0 | work=The New York Times | first=Andrea | last=Elliott | title=Jef Raskin, 61, Developer of Apple Macintosh, Is Dead | date=February 28, 2005}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Information appliance]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite journal|last=Raskin|first=Jef|date=August 1995|title=THE MAC AND ME: 15 Years of Life with the Macintosh (Part 1)|journal=The Analytical Engine|publisher=Computer History Association of California |volume=2|issue=4|page=9|issn=1071-6351|url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/chac/CHAC_Analytical_Engine/2.4_August_1995.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923150011/http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/chac/CHAC_Analytical_Engine/2.4_August_1995.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |url-status=live}}
* {{cite journal|last=Raskin|first=Jef|date=May 1996|title=THE MAC AND ME: 15 Years of Life with the Macintosh (Part 2)|journal=The Analytical Engine|publisher=Computer History Association of California |volume=3|issue=3|page=21|issn=1071-6351|url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/chac/CHAC_Analytical_Engine/3.3_May_1996.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923150044/http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/chac/CHAC_Analytical_Engine/3.3_May_1996.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |url-status=live}}
* [http://www.interaction-design.org/references/authors/jef_raskin.html Publications by Jef Raskin] from Interaction-Design.org
* [http://digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/index.html Audio interviews with Jef Raskin and photos from various periods of his life]
*{{cite web|url=http://www.raskincenter.org/pressrelease.html |title=Raskin Family Press Statement |access-date=February 28, 2005 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050303075528/http://www.raskincenter.org/pressrelease.html |archive-date=March 3, 2005 }}, February 27, 2005.

{{Apple celeb}}
{{Original Macintosh developer team}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskin, Jef}}
[[Category:Jef Raskin| ]]
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:American computer scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Apple Inc. employees]]
[[Category:Canon (company) people]]
[[Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California]]
[[Category:Human–computer interaction researchers]]
[[Category:Pennsylvania State University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Pacifica, California]]
[[Category:Stony Brook University alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from California]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]