Overview
of
the
Mac
15
On
the other hand, with the Mac, the copying operation
was performed by moving the pointer to various icons
and
file
menus
on
the
Desktop
and
selecting the desired items by
clicking the mouse button.
The end-user must,
of
course, make the final decision as to
which environment, visual
or
literate, he
or
she prefers. The
probability is great, however,
that
the first-time
computer
user
will find the Mac's visual system easier to master
than
the IBM
PC's literate system.
History of the Mac
The concepts behind the Macintosh's visual interface were
initially developed
at
the Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto
Research Center. Xerox actually brought a machine
to
market
in
1981
that
incorporated these ideas, the Xerox Star®. How-
ever, the
Star
was not a large commercial success probably due
to
the fact
that
its cost was beyond the means
of
the average
personal computer consumer.
In
1983, Apple® introduced the original
Lisa™
model.
The
Lisa includes a visual interface similar to
that
used
on
the Mac.
The original Lisa was subsequently modified
and
reintroduced
in the spring
of
1984 as the Lisa
2.
The main difference between the Mac
and
its predeces-
sors, the Xerox
Star
and
the Apple Lisa,
is
price.
The
Mac was
the first personal computer introduced with a visual interface
and
with a price tag under $3000. The Mac's relatively low
price coupled with its efficient design
and
visual interface have
resulted in it being a success in the marketplace.
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