I never take any joy in reporting that someone who has worked to create so much joy in the lives of so many passed on, but here it goes regardless. The BBC reports that the man behind the Mac project all those years ago is no longer with us. It was because of Jef Raskin (spelled with one ‘f’) and his team that all of you Mac users are enjoying the fun and freedom that the Apple setup can provide. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Mr Raskin was one of the first employees at Apple and made many of the design decisions that made the Mac so distinctive when it was first released.

He led the team that decided to use a graphical interface and mouse that let people navigate around the computer by pointing and clicking.

The 1984 release of the Mac reflected Mr Raskin’s belief that good design should make computers easy to use.

Ground-breaking

Mr Raskin joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 31, initially to lead the company’s publications department.

However, in 1979 he was put in charge of a small team to design a computer that lived up to his idea of a machine that was cheap, aimed at consumers rather than computer professionals and was very easy to use.

The result was the 1984 Macintosh that did away with the then common text-based interface in favour of one based around graphics that resembled a virtual desktop and used folders and documents.

Users navigated around the machine using a mouse and by pointing, clicking and dragging.

Although now in common use in almost all computers, these methods were pioneering when first used in the Macintosh.