Στρογγυλεμένες γωνίες
Θέλω να γράψω περισσότερα για τον Bill Atkinson που έφυγε από τη ζωή στις 5 Ιουνίου. Είναι εξαιρετικά κρίμα που στην Ελλάδα οι υπολογιστές έγιναν γνωστοί μέσω της Microsoft και η Apple είχε τη φήμη της παράλογης, πανάκριβης, εταιρείας. Η ιστορία του Macintosh είναι γεμάτη απολαυστικές ιστορίες από πανέξυπνους, δημιουργικούς ανθρώπους.
Εδώ η ιστορία για το πώς το Mac απέκτησε παράθυρα με στρογγυλεμένες γωνίες:
Bill fired up his demo and it quickly filled the Lisa screen with randomly-sized ovals, faster than you thought was possible. But something was bothering Steve Jobs. "Well, circles and ovals are good, but how about drawing rectangles with rounded corners? Can we do that now, too?"
"No, there's no way to do that. In fact it would be really hard to do, and I don't think we really need it". I think Bill was a little miffed that Steve wasn't raving over the fast ovals and still wanted more.
Steve suddenly got more intense. "Rectangles with rounded corners are everywhere! Just look around this room!". And sure enough, there were lots of them, like the whiteboard and some of the desks and tables. Then he pointed out the window. "And look outside, there's even more, practically everywhere you look!". He even persuaded Bill to take a quick walk around the block with him, pointing out every rectangle with rounded corners that he could find.
Την επόμενη μέρα επέστρεψε έχοντας βρει τη λύση.