Drag and Drop man dies
C:\>copy c:\mydocs\mydrctry\letter~1.doc d:\worddocs
The above line doesn’t make any sense? Then you never had to learn DOS. I did as I started with computers in the early 80’s. It is the DOS code for moving/copying a document from C: to D: drive.
Move, copy, delete, make directory and every other application had to be handled by typing lines of code.
And then along came Jef Raskin. Amongst other things, he invented the mouse controlled ‘Drag and drop’ system of moving files or documents.
When the Mac was unveiled in 1984, it radically changed the personal computer industry. No longer were users forced to type commands. Instead, its interface mimicked a physical desktop, with folders and filing cabinets. Documents could be dragged from one area to another.On 26 Feb he was dragged and dropped in the recycle bin for deletion. He died of Pancreatic cancer but he will always be remembered for taking the drudgery out of computing.
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I have several computers in test settings, vintage 1989. All use DOS. When they die, as happened recently, I have to scratch the deep recesses of my brain to remember all the commands I once knew so well.
At the time the Mac and Windows came out, I couldn’t understand why anyone needed a mouse. Once I began using one, my attitude changed. Who says an old GI can’t learn new tricks?
I bought an IBM PC in 1983, and remember first seeing a MAC in a showroom. The hubby and I played with it, thought ‘Cute’, and walked on. Then about 2 years later I had the chance to explore Excel on a MAC, and suddenly knew what the Mouse revolution was all about ;-)
DOS is a new invention as far as I’m concerned. I took COBOL [common business oriented langurage] at Trinity University in 1970. The computer was as big as your house, situated in a specially designed air conditioned room. You communicated with the computer via “punch cards”. After a semester of programming training the best I could achieve was a protocol using 100’s of punch cards that when activated printed out a pyramid. My thought at the time was that this computer crap was going nowhere. I have been proven correct……no wait a minute!
In 1972 the company was processing seismic records on a RDS-500 (by Raytheon), programming was done with paper tapes and punch cards, hard drives were stand-alone, and the size of a small dumpster, and mice were not allowed in the computer rooms.
My, my, how things have changed.