Evolution Of A Classic 经典的演变

作者: 大卫拉姆齐 日期: 1986年3月 人物: 比尔·阿特金森、吉恩·波普、大卫·拉姆齐、里奇·佩吉 主题: 维护,MacPaint 概要: 关于苹果第一代Macintosh的开发以及制造它的人的轶事: MacPaint 2.0 , 经典的演变 Evolution Of A Classic

I started working at Apple in 1986. When I arrived, nobody gave me any work to do. So, I set up my workspace and got my computer working. Then, I went to talk to my boss’s workspace and asked if he had the code for MacPaint. He had it! He gave me a single floppy disk with all the MacPaint files on it.

我于 1986 年开始在苹果公司工作。当我到达时,没有人给我任何工作要做。因此,我设置了工作区并使计算机正常工作。
然后,我去老板的工作空间谈话,询问他是否有 MacPaint 的代码。他拥有了!他给了我一张软盘,上面有所有 MacPaint 文件。

I remember seeing MacPaint for the first time. Bill Atkinson was showing it to us at a computer store called Computers Plus, which was owned by Mark Wozniak and Dick Applebaum. I was amazed at how quickly the computer could show images on the screen. But even with how cool it was, I had some things that I wished were different. For example, I wanted to be able to move the image window around and make it bigger or smaller.

我记得第一次看到 MacPaint。比尔·阿特金森在一家名为 Computers Plus 的电脑商店向我们展示了它,该商店的所有者是马克·沃兹尼亚克 (Mark Wozniak) 和迪克·阿普尔鲍姆 (Dick Applebaum)。
我对计算机在屏幕上显示图像的速度感到惊讶。
但即使它有多么酷,我还是希望有一些不同的东西。例如,我希望能够移动图像窗口并使其变大或变小。

After a week or so of experimenting, I showed my boss (Gene Pope) what I had done. I was just fooling around because nobody had given me any specific tasks, but Gene suggested I add more features to improve the program, with the goal of creating a better version called “MacPaint 2.0”.

经过一周左右的实验后,我向我的老板(吉恩·波普)展示了我所做的事情。我只是在开玩笑,因为没有人给我任何具体的任务,但吉恩建议我添加更多功能来改进程序,目标是创建一个更好的版本,称为“MacPaint 2.0”。

At first, I was a bit scared: Bill Atkinson is very good and I was worried about replacing him with someone new. But he was very kind and helpful. He was too busy with his new project, Hypercard, so I think he didn’t have much time to think about it. He took hours to explain his special 68000 computer codes to me, making sure I understood what was important. He looked very closely at me to see if I got it: “Make the loops shorter”, “fill the computer memory full”…

起初,我有点害怕:比尔·阿特金森非常出色,我担心用新人取代他。但他非常友善且乐于助人。他太忙于他的新项目Hypercard,所以我认为他没有太多时间考虑这个问题。
他花了几个小时向我解释他的特殊 68000 计算机代码,确保我明白什么是重要的。他仔细地看着我,看我是否明白了:“让循环更短”,“填满计算机内存”......

I was so happy when I finally understood how “regions” work in QuickDraw. It changed everything.

当我终于了解“区域”在 QuickDraw 中的工作原理时,我感到非常高兴。它改变了一切。

Do we really need to know the details?

我们真的需要了解细节吗?

It’s unusual for today’s technology, but MacPaint 2.0 didn’t have a document that explained what the product should do. There were no meetings to decide on features. Until just a few months before it was finished, there wasn’t even a person in charge who decided what the product should be. Many people had ideas and suggestions (and the new menu feature came from HyperCard, thanks to Bill). In the end, the product was what I wanted it to be.

这对于当今的技术来说很不寻常,但 MacPaint 2.0 没有一个文档来解释该产品应该做什么。没有召开会议来决定功能。
直到完成前几个月,甚至没有一个负责人来决定产品应该是什么。许多人提出了想法和建议(新的菜单功能来自 HyperCard,感谢 Bill)。最后,产品就是我想要的。

I had more freedom when creating MacPaint than Bill did because I didn’t have to worry about making it work on a small Mac computer that only had 128K of memory. The computer I was working with had 512K of memory, which made it easier to add new features. Because of this, MacPaint became a better program with a window that could be moved around, the ability to work on multiple documents at the same time, and other features.

在创建 MacPaint 时,我比 Bill 有更多的自由,因为我不必担心让它在只有 128K 内存的小型 Mac 计算机上运行。
我使用的计算机有 512K 内存,这使得添加新功能变得更容易。正因为如此,MacPaint 成为了一个更好的程序,具有可以移动的窗口、同时处理多个文档的能力以及其他功能。

Some parts of MacPaint 2.0 were small but nice: for example, if you used a special Radius computer screen that could make the menu bar bigger, MacPaint 2.0 would move its window down to make room for it.

MacPaint 2.0 的某些部分虽小但很好:例如,如果您使用特殊的 Radius 计算机屏幕可以使菜单栏更大,MacPaint 2.0 会将其窗口向下移动以为其腾出空间。

Most of the MacPaint program was created on a special computer called the “Big Mac.” This computer was a test model for the next Macintosh computer. It was similar to a Mac Plus, but with a faster processor. The Big Mac was just a circuit board mounted on a piece of wood and connected to a big hard drive that could store 10 million bytes of information.

MacPaint 程序的大部分是在称为“巨无霸”的特殊计算机上创建的。这台计算机是下一代 Macintosh 计算机的测试模型。它与 Mac Plus 类似,但具有更快的处理器。
巨无霸只是一块安装在一块木头上的电路板,并连接到一个可以存储 1000 万字节信息的大硬盘。

I used the Big Mac design because it was quicker and better than the Macintosh II designs that were available at the time. The Big Mac design was never made, and the person who designed it, Rich Page, left Apple to work at a new company called NeXT a short time later.

我使用了 Big Mac 设计,因为它比当时可用的 Macintosh II 设计更快、更好。巨无霸的设计从未被设计出来,设计它的人 Rich Page 不久后就离开了苹果,前往一家名为 NeXT 的新公司工作。

I still have the Big Mac I used at Apple, and I’m wondering if it’s still working.

我仍然保留着在苹果公司使用过的巨无霸,我想知道它是否还能用。

Old versions of MacPaint had different pictures in the “About” section. The last test version showed a drawing of a zebra-striped woman from a famous painting. When MacPaint was finally released, this picture was still included. To see the picture, you had to press some special keys: hold down the “tab” and “space” keys while choosing “About MacPaint”.

旧版本的 MacPaint 在“关于”部分有不同的图片。最后一个测试版本展示了一幅名画中的斑马条纹女人的图画。当MacPaint最终发布时,这张图片仍然被包含在内。要查看图片,您必须按一些特殊键:按住“制表符”和“空格键”,同时选择“关于 MacPaint”。

When the artist learned about it, she was calm. I have a printed copy that was signed by the artist, and it is still framed today.

当艺术家得知此事后,她很平静。我有一份有艺术家签名的印刷版,至今仍装在镜框里。

MacPaint 2.0 was first released in late 1987. It stayed available for purchase until the fall of 1998. I think this is a really long time for a computer program to be on the market.

MacPaint 2.0 于 1987 年末首次发布。直到 1998 年秋天才可以购买。我认为对于计算机程序来说,这是一个相当长的上市时间。
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