Craig The Lisa Computer A Retrospective CHAC V2N1

Page 18 The Analytical Engine July-September 1994 THE APPLE LISA COMPUTER: A RETROSPECTIVE (c) Copyright 1993 • David T. Craig1 CIS 71533,606 INTRODUCTION This paper is an attempt by a long-time Lisa user to clarify the significance of the Apple Lisa personal computer for the computing industry. The audience is anyone who has an interest in innovative computing technology, and wants to learn a little about Apple Computer's brief foray into this area via the Lisa computer. This paper hopes to show why the Lisa was significant in its time, and how some of what was called "Lisa Technology" is slowly migrating to other computer systems, notably the Apple Macintosh computer series. The author has never worked for Apple, and so is not privy to any "insider secrets" about this machine. All information contained herein was obtained from Apple's cornucopia of Lisa and Macintosh literature, from discussions with other Lisa owners, and through my personal involvement with and observation of both machines since 1984. This paper is loosely based upon the excellent article "The Legacy of the Lisa" (MacWorld magazine, Sep. 1985) as written by Mr. Larry Tesler, one of the Lisa's main designers and currently Chief Scientist at Apple Computer. A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY Apple began developing the Lisa in 1979. The Lisa's charter was to build a revolutionary device that was truly easy to use, and thereby mitigate the limitations of existing computers. Developing a computer which was an order of magnitude easier to use than traditional computers required several major departures, not all of which were obvious. Even the name "Lisa" has always been rather enigmatic for most computer users, including Lisa owners. To set the story straight (as far as I know) here are the facts: Officially, Apple states that "Lisa" stood for "Local Integrated July-September 1994 The Analytical Engine Software Architecture." Unofficially, "Lisa" has been associated with the name of a child fathered by one of the Lisa designers.2 The Lisa had several design goals: * Be intuitive, * be consistent, * conform to the ways people actually work, * have enough performance to do the jobs that need doing, * provide an open software and hardware architecture, * be reliable, * be pleasing, and * fit into an everyday work environment. The Lisa was based on sophisticated hardware technology. The single compact desktop unit contained a 12-inch black-and-white screen, and two revolutionary floppy disk drives called "Twiggy" - after the English supermodel of the day, because she, and they, were so thin. The Lisa contained a Motorola 68000 processor and 1 megabyte of memory, expandable to 2 megabytes. Cabled to the Lisa's case were a keyboard, and a (then) uncommon peripheral called a "mouse," which was a key element of the Lisa's design. Apple introduced the Lisa to the general public in January 1983 at a price of $9,995. In April 1985, after only one and a half years, Apple discontinued the Lisa i…