Canon Cat
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN uses it as a quick look at what using a Canon Cat was actually like, in threads on Raskin, command interfaces and early Macintosh history.
What it is
A short Italian-language clip about the Canon Cat, a text-oriented personal computer from Canon designed by Jef Raskin, who started the Macintosh project. It shows the machine in use.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2016 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends watersb · 2024-05 · on “Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan (12 July 1981) [pdf]”
Wow, of course.. didn't think of video. That video is great, a VCR tape collection of corporate demos by Jef Raskin's company, apparently for investors and resellers. YouTube suggested a short, informal demo posted only 10 years ago, about 6 minutes: [this video] A bit less familiar with it so a quick and dirty video I suppose but a great demonstration of what it would be like to use one now. Essential history! Thanks!
Cites Animats · 2016-09 · on “Restoring YC's Xerox Alto: how our boot disk was trashed with random data”
Jef Raskin was passionate about user interface design, but had a completely different approach. The realization of Raskin's thinking is the Canon Cat.[1] Video demo: [2] It's a machine for text editing with the minimal number of keystrokes. There are special "Leap" keys, and a "Front" shift for extra characters on keytop fronts. There's no pointing device. It's an elegant concept, but nothing one would think of as a GUI today. It's more like something that would appeal to Markdown enthusiasts. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Cites marttt · 2020-01 · on “Leap Technology (keyboard vs. mouse on a Canon Cat machine, ca 1987)”
More on the Canon Cat: [this video] [LINK] There are also a few previous HN discussions on this machine. EDIT: I just have to post this lovely scene from the original video separately. This is about human-computer interaction after all, isn't it! [LINK] Aren't we actually approaching an age where this kind of (almost-)single-purpose machines might be making a comeback? The focus this model seems to allow or enforce on the user feels kind of... healthy.
Cites kragen · 2021-11 · on “Command palettes: how typing commands became the norm again”
Right, The Humane Environment, following on his work with the Canon Cat and the Macintosh, before Steve Jobs took over the project and made it into a better Lisa. Later they renamed THE to the more googlable "Archy", a pun on RCHI, the Raskin Center for the Humane Interface, shortly before Jef's surprising death from pancreatic cancer. Jef's son Aza unfortunately hasn't kept Jef's stuff online, and he also invented infinite scroll websites. Nice guy though. LEAP was Emacs incremental-search, but on the Cat the idea was to use it to replace all cursor movement except "creep" left and right arrows. Thanks for the video! I had never seen it. YT suggested [this video] , another Cat video. [LINK] show