Human-computer interface expert best known for starting the Macintosh project for Apple, Raskin first met Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak following the debut of their Apple II personal computer at the first West Coast Computer Faire. From his responsibility for documentation and testing, Raskin had great influence on early engineering projects. Because the Apple II only displayed uppercase characters on a 40-column screen, his department used the Polymorphic Systems 8813 (an Intel-8080-based machine running CP/M) to write documentation; this spurred the development of an 80-column display card and a suitable text editor for the Apple II.
In 1981 Steve Jobs directed his attention to Raskin's Macintosh project, intending to marry the Xerox PARC-inspired GUI-based Lisa design to Raskin's appliance-computing, "computers-by-the-millions" concept.
Raskin died in 2004 of pancreatic cancer in Pacifica, California.
