"He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple and began the Macintosh project in 1979. He also recruited Andy Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith from the Apple Service Department. The machine he envisioned was very different from the Macintosh that was eventually released and had much more in common with PDAs than modern GUI-based machines. The machine was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch black-and-white character display built into a small case with a floppy disk. A number of basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine also included logic that would understand user intentions and switch programs on the fly. For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user."
I see your point about misleading people... I always read how he was the "father of MacIntosh" but after you read more you realize that was never the case.
"For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user."
Ouch... talk about doing way too much. This would drive most people insane. We should all be thankful to Jobs that he took over MacIntosh team and never implemented any of this stuff.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jef_Raskin
"He later hired his former student Bill Atkinson from UCSD to work at Apple and began the Macintosh project in 1979. He also recruited Andy Hertzfeld and Burrell Smith from the Apple Service Department. The machine he envisioned was very different from the Macintosh that was eventually released and had much more in common with PDAs than modern GUI-based machines. The machine was similar in power to the Apple II and included a small 9-inch black-and-white character display built into a small case with a floppy disk. A number of basic applications were built into the machine, selectable by pressing function keys. The machine also included logic that would understand user intentions and switch programs on the fly. For instance, if the user simply started typing it would switch into editor mode, and if they typed numbers it would switch to calculator mode. In many cases these switches would be largely invisible to the user."