Book details of 'Revolution in The Valley'

Title	Revolution in The Valley
Author(s)	Andy Hertzfeld
ISBN	0596007191
Language	English
Published	December 2004
Publisher	O'Reilly

---

Back to shelf Computer
Amazon.com info for Revolution in The Valley

Score:

Vote for this book

The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Revolution in The Valley':

Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
The subtitle of the book, indicating that this is the story of how the Mac was made, isn't really correct. It's a series of anecdotes, in roughly chronological order, surrounding the creation of the Macintosh. The stories are generally amusing and entertaining. There are, at times, tantalizing references to interesting solutions to technical challenges, but those resolutions are not provided in detail, and the technical content is a bit frustrating. I suppose the target audience is Mac fanatics, who will never get tired of the constant refrain that this was the computer that changed the history of the cosmos. Still, it is ironic to note the story, on page 139, of how advertising agency Chiat-Day filmed interviews with the design team for a series of launch ads. These were never aired because the advertising people felt that the "too self-congratulatory" tone would grate on viewers. Having read the book, I can fully sympathize. Rather late in the text (page 261), it is admitted that some mistakes were made. The justification? They didn't realize that the machine that would "shape the lives of humans for hundreds of years" would last so long. An interesting item is the perspective on Steve Jobs. Towards the end of the work he is creditted as the true father of the Macintosh. This doesn't really fit with the rest of the volume, where he is described as petty, vindictive, and not really understanding of either the technology nor the process of development. Still, a lot of the stories are cute. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2005
Add my review for Revolution in The Valley

Book description:

There was a time, not too long ago, when the typewriter and notebook ruled, and the computer as an everyday tool was simply a vision. Revolution in the Valley traces this vision back to its earliest roots: the hallways and backrooms of Apple, where the groundbreaking Macintosh computer was born. The book traces the development of the Macintosh, from its inception as an underground skunkworks project in 1979 to its triumphant introduction in 1984 and beyond. The stories in Revolution in the Valley come on extremely good authority. That's because author Andy Hertzfeld was a core member of the team that built the Macintosh system software, and a key creator of the Mac's radically new user interface software. One of the chosen few who worked with the mercurial Steve Jobs, you might call him the ultimate insider. When Revolution in the Valley begins, Hertzfeld is working on Apple's first attempt at a low-cost, consumer-oriented computer: the Apple II. He sees that Steve Jobs is luring some of the company's most brilliant innovators to work on a tiny research effort the Macintosh. Hertzfeld manages to make his way onto the Macintosh research team, and the rest is history. Through lavish illustrations, period photos (many never before published), and Hertzfeld's vivid first-hand accounts, Revolution in the Valley reveals what it was like to be there at the birth of the personal computer revolution. The story comes to life through the book's portrait of the talented and often eccentric characters who made up the Macintosh team. Now, over 20 years later, millions of people are benefiting from the technical achievements of this determined and brilliant group of people.