Mystery Monologue
Having written these past couple of months on A.P.P.L.E.’s accomplishments in various fields brings us to this month’s harangue\\ …er, monologue. Today, we’ll talk about A.P.P.L.E. software. Lest the reader go away thinking we have done nothing but pat ourselves on the back, we should set the record straight.
For the benefit of those of you who are hearing about the club — A.P.P.L.E. (Apple PugetSound Program Library Exchange) and the later A.P.P.L.E. co-op and Tech Alliance – for the first time, we have no choice but to indulge in a bit of back-patting for no other reason than that the group deserves all the back-patting it can get. A.P.P.L.E. rose to a peak popularity – and 30,000 magazine circulation – a few short years after its 1978 founding in the back room of Max Cook’s Computerland store.
For a long time A.P.P.L.E. had an all volunteer staff but as rapid growth continued a minimum paid staff became essential. Moreover, as business and membership increased, the board filed for incorporation under the laws of the State of Washington and under Federal 501 (C-3) regulations as a nonprofit corporation.
Shortly after the introduction of the fabulous Apple //gs, a third generation Apple, Commodore’s powerful and competitive Amiga, IBM’s PC and Apple’s own MacIntosh started grabbing market share. At the same time, Apple management made the ill-fated (for the gs) decision to support the Mac at the expense of the gs. Now in the twilight of its reign, Apple ][‘s popularity waned and A.P.P.L.E. too commenced a decline.
It might seem appropriate at this point to belatedly offer thanks to A.P.P.L.E.’s many unpaid volunteers, those who managed day-to-day operations, served on the board, created software and contributed articles for Call – A.P.P.L.E., the group’s monthly newsletter-cum-magazine. However, the gargantuan task of actually naming all those wonderful people deserving of our thanks would beyond a doubt fill an entire page. And so it shall, but not here, not now, not this month.
Returning to this month’s topic, from which we have thus far successfully strayed, not only was A.P.P.L.E. well known for the quality of its documentation, as we remarked in last month’s issue, so too had it achieved a reputation not only for software quality but as well, its innovations, the first-of-a-kinds, accomplishing the “it-can’t-be-dones,” and creating the utilities for which the group became most famous.
Foremost was A.P.P.L.E.’s spreadsheet candidate, code-named “Mystery House,” developed in-house at Apple Computer. Slipped to us under cover of darkness by those who, even at this late date shall remain nameless, “Mystery House” soon became A.P.P.L.E.’s “The Spreadsheet.” Steve Ross wrote his excellent documentation for it and it was soon made available to a flabbergasted membership for only $15.
Much to our chagrin, we were eventually asked by Apple Computer to withdraw it from the market. Apple was then involved a in legal tangle brought on by the producers of a commercial Apple spreadsheet claiming that “The Spreadsheet,” at its price was unfair competition. Nevertheless, A.P.P.L.E. members who didn’t tarry found an inexpensive spreadsheet as fine as any ever written in the early years. We regret that our recollections of “The Spreadsheet” and some of the other applications have faded almost as rapidly as the fortunes of A.P.P.L.E. and, ultimately, Apple Computer.
Utilities were A.P.P.L.E.’s real forte, made possible largely by their earlier forays into the Apple’s innards, lifting the hood, so to speak. “Higher Text,” a milestone in graphic blandishment, allowed the user, for the first time, to write text characters to the Apple hi-res screen using a choice of fonts. The authors, Ron and Darrell Aldrich, having moved on to successful software careers, both remain in the Seattle area today.
Who could ever forget A.P.P.L.E.’s piece-de-resistance, “Global Program Line Editor” by Neil Konzen. Of all the software released by the club, none saved us more programming time than Neil’s GPLE. Apple’s built-in text editor left a great deal to be desired and was awkward to the extent that two keystrokes were required to move up or down one line of text on the screen. “Program Line Editor” was first introduced in 1979 to compensate for the failings of Apple’s rudimentary editor. PLE was an immediate success. A version 2 was released in 1980 and global capabilities were added in 1982, making GPLE by far the most advanced and sophisticated line editor of its time. Neil Konzen moved on to Microsoft as one of their star programmers and became closely involved in the development of MSDOS and Windows.
And so, the moving finger, having forgotten, stumbles on. Next: Kudos.
