Dennis Austin, the Software Developer of PowerPoint, Dies At 76 (washingtonpost.com) 29
Dennis Austin, the principal software developer of PowerPoint, passed away from lung cancer on Sept. 1. He was 76. The Washington Post reports: Released in 1987 by Forethought, a small software firm, PowerPoint was the digital successor to overhead projectors, transforming the labor-intensive process of creating slides -- a task typically assigned to design departments or outsourced -- to one where any employee with a computer could point, click and rearrange information with a mouse. "Our users were familiar with computers, but probably not graphics software," Mr. Austin wrote in an unpublished history of the software's development. "They were highly motivated to look their best in front of others, but they weren't savvy in graphics design."
Working alongside Robert Gaskins, the Forethought executive who conceived the software, it was Mr. Austin's job as the software engineer to make PowerPoint (originally called Presenter) easy to operate. He accomplished this with a "direct-manipulation interface," he wrote, meaning that "what you are editing looks exactly like the final product." Originally targeted for Macintosh computers, which had a graphical interface, Presenter included ways for users to incorporate graphics, clip art and multiple fonts. In addition, the slides could be uniform with graphic borders, corporate logos and slide numbers. The goal, Mr. Austin wrote, was "to create presentations -- not simply slides."
In his book "Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint" (2012), Gaskins wrote that "Dennis came up with at least half of the major design ideas," and was "completely responsible for the fluid performance and the polished finish of the implementation." "It's a good bet," Gaskins added, "that if Dennis had not been the person designing PowerPoint, no one would ever have heard of it."
Working alongside Robert Gaskins, the Forethought executive who conceived the software, it was Mr. Austin's job as the software engineer to make PowerPoint (originally called Presenter) easy to operate. He accomplished this with a "direct-manipulation interface," he wrote, meaning that "what you are editing looks exactly like the final product." Originally targeted for Macintosh computers, which had a graphical interface, Presenter included ways for users to incorporate graphics, clip art and multiple fonts. In addition, the slides could be uniform with graphic borders, corporate logos and slide numbers. The goal, Mr. Austin wrote, was "to create presentations -- not simply slides."
In his book "Sweating Bullets: Notes about Inventing PowerPoint" (2012), Gaskins wrote that "Dennis came up with at least half of the major design ideas," and was "completely responsible for the fluid performance and the polished finish of the implementation." "It's a good bet," Gaskins added, "that if Dennis had not been the person designing PowerPoint, no one would ever have heard of it."
First style manual (Score:2)
Possibly resulting in the first software-inspired style manual:
Guns don't kill people, bullet-points kill people
Dennis will be sorely missed. (Score:1)
His groundbreaking contributions to the field of women's fitness and sport will never be forgotten. Condolences to sibling Tracy Austin.
The software I love to hate (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyway, RIP to the guy. I wish I had made a contribution as large as his to the community.
Re:The software I love to hate (Score:4, Insightful)
I've discovered that there are two ways around that (if you have to give a lecture-type presentation, where you talk from 15 mins to a hour).
- Make the PPT so terse that it doesn't actually include anything else except perhaps presentation outline and a oneliner slide for every topic and a thank you at the end. That way, no one even attempts to decipher the intent based on slides alone.
- Make a verbose PPT, but use hidden slides feature. That way you have a bunch of slides in between that you do not actually show during your spoken presentation,but when you share the file later, it also has the stuff you only spoke about. You do not want to give powerpoint poisoning during the talk.
=> In best case, you can include a couple of slides at the end for questions raised if you can defer sharing the presentation for a while (half a hour will be enough).
Re: (Score:1)
How do I mod down "looks too much like PowerPoint" in text format?
Re: The software I love to hate (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: The software I love to hate (Score:2)
The biggest issues I see are no presenter notes, instead relying on the slides, and a lack of meeting notes. Do those, then sharing the afterwards helps.
You can even update the deck prior to sharing, including questions/clarifications that arose during the meeting.
For important stuff I also record the session, then include that with the files.
Re: (Score:2)
I use PowerPoint very often. While it does help drive a point through (pun not intended!), it does have some pitfalls [edwardtufte.com].
One weird pitfall is people using it for things it was not designed to do.
We had people making big posters with it. While we could cripple dick those into something passable, even with the not completely compatible Mac and Windows versions of PP, and the weird issues where you fought with it based on different printers, the ultimate -
Some idiot tried to create a technical manual with PowerPoint, he cripple dicked with it, used up his entire budget, and brought it to our department to fix.
Fluid performance?? (Score:3)
"responsible for the fluid performance"
There may be many adjectives used to descript PP, but fluid performance isn't one of them. Unless he means highly variable to the point of occasionally grinding to a halt.
Re: (Score:2)
"responsible for the fluid performance"
There may be many adjectives used to descript PP, but fluid performance isn't one of them. Unless he means highly variable to the point of occasionally grinding to a halt.
The performance described was of the original version on the Mac in the 80s, not the current one. That said, PowerPoint does perform rather fluidly. There are a lot of issues with usability and end results, but performance is OK. As it should be, it doesn't exactly do a whole lot of computing.
Re: Fluid performance?? (Score:1)
When they say fluid performance they talk about 68030 Macs with Classic MacOS with tiny memory.
Like Piss (Score:2)
"fluid performance" = Behaves Like Piss
Tacky (Score:5, Funny)
Will his loved ones celebrate his life at his funeral with a Powerpoint presentation reviewing his life?
Just wondering cuz times are a changing aren't they?
Re: (Score:2)
And someone "accidentaly" inserts a few pictures from *that* holiday which his wife didn't attend.
Re: (Score:1)
And someone "accidentaly" inserts a few pictures from *that* holiday which his wife didn't attend.
Bah-Dum-Bump ... Rimshot !
Harvard Graphics (Score:5, Interesting)
"Harvard Graphics was developed by Software Publishing Corporation and introduced for DOS in 1986."
Perhaps the article should have said "PowerPoint was a digital successor to overhead projectors"
I used HG extensively up until the early 90s when the military switch to all Microsoft products.
Powerpoints are incredibly useful (Score:5, Insightful)
They're an excellent metric of how boring a meeting is gonna be: the smaller the font, the denser the text and the more pointless lineart is has on the first 2 or 3 slides - not to mention the slides count if the presenter is dump enough to leave it up on the screen - is my cue to suddenly remember I left something in my office, apologize, get up and leave discreetly.
I'm guessing... (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:3)
Next Slide!
His fault for many stupid time wasting meetings (Score:1)
Take your typical pointless weekly corporate meeting, add power point, meeting is now even dumber.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. That person shares responsibility for so many wasted hours and so many bad decisions.
"End of slide show, click to exit." (Score:3)
RIP
Presenter (Score:2)
"Presenter" is a better name than "PowerPoint." At least it describes the purpose of the software. Another stupid name is "Excel." Also, "Acrobat." Also "Access." Is it a requirement to be hired as a marketing type you must be a moron?
Re: (Score:2)
I think the requirement to be a willing Microsoft customer is to be a moron. And the rest gets swept up in the tide.
That thing is an abomination (Score:2)
Whenever I can, I use LibreOffice instead and things works so much better. Suddenly the tool does not stand in my way and there are only a few minor annoyances. PowerPoint needs to be purged with fire.
We lost a bad one (Score:2)
Good
Fucking PowerPoint. It should have never been made..
Steve Jobs is dead. I pretty sure the creator of PDFs bit it not to long ago. Now its Bill Gates' turn.