Macinography 10: OpenDoc and Apple's Development Doldrums

The Icon Garden

In the beleaguered era, developing for the Macintosh was radically different than today. But one project of Apple’s stood out from the rest. OpenDoc wasn’t just a way to link data, but aimed to redefine how we interact with documents and applications. With partners like IBM, Novell, and WordPerfect, how could it fail? Listen to find out.

Sources / Notes:

• Kurt Piersol OpenDoc lecture
• CHM oral history of Larry Tesler, Part 3
• OpenDoc human interface research
• 1994 SFA Atlanta notes
• Greg Maletic’s Blog
• Amy D. Wohl’s blog
• MacTech issue 22
• Sundial IBM OS/2 OpenDoc Resourxe
• TidBITS
• Ars OpenForum: What happened to OpenDoc?

Contact Us You can find Dan on twitter @kefkafloyd and Jake on twitter @jakepugh. We’re available on your podcast platform of choice, and if you like us, a five star rating or review would be greatly appreciated. You can visit our website at icongardenshow.com or post in the Ars thread by going to bit.ly/tigsthread. Some interstitial music used in this episode is courtesy of the Youtube Audio Library and it was composed by Jeremy Blake. Thanks for listening, and we’ll catch you next time.