Joe Shelton Recalls the Early Mac Days
Jim Edwards (via Dave Mark):
In 1981, not many people were writing software applications for the Apple II. Shelton was worried that the Apple Software Publishing group was promising impossible-to-meet sales numbers at the expense of quality. So Shelton decided to resign. “I’d already written my resignation letter with my opinions on the company’s direction and given it to one of my bosses, the head of the Apple II and III group, and had just given a copy to Mike Markkula — chairman of the board and VP of marketing — when I ran into Steve.”
[…]
The founder took him to Bandley 4 building and showed him what Steve’s secret group was working on next: The Mac prototype. […] “Would you like to be the product manager?” Jobs asked. Obviously, Shelton said yes.
[…]
Standing in front of his employees, Jobs told them, “we want developers to write small, efficient code, not Microsoft code.” His logic was that would metastasize all over the place. The [128K] limit would become Apple’s advantage by forcing developers to do more with less headroom.
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The [128K] limit would become Apple’s advantage by forcing developers to do more with less headroom.
Man, tell modern web developers and mobile app developers to get this religion! To be fair, 128k was hobbled even back then, but I love the theory behind it. Code efficiently and purposefully. Just love it.
