Editing Jef Raskin (section)

==Early life and education==
Jef Raskin was born in [[New York City]] to a secular Jewish family,<ref>{{Cite web |title=DigiBarn Stories: Jef Raskin on "Meeting Merlin" |url=https://www.digibarn.com/stories/raskin-merlin8/index.htm |access-date=2025-01-02 |website=www.digibarn.com}}</ref> whose surname is a [[matronymic]] from "Raske", [[Yiddish]] nickname for Rachel. He received a [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in [[mathematics]] and a [[Bachelor of Science|BS]] in [[physics]] with minors in [[philosophy]] and [[music]] from [[Stony Brook University]].<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org">{{cite web |url=https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=941396 |title=A conversation with Jef Raskin |date=July 2003 |website=Ubiquity}}</ref> In 1967, he received a [[master's degree]] in [[computer science]] from [[Pennsylvania State University]], after having switched from [[mathematical logic]] due to differences of opinion with his advisor. Even though he had completed work typical for a PhD, the university was not accredited for a PhD in computer science.<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org"/> The first original computer application he wrote was a music application as part of his master's thesis.

Raskin later enrolled in a graduate music program at the [[University of California, San Diego]] (UCSD), but quit to teach art, photography, and computer science there. He worked as an assistant professor in the Visual Arts department from 1968 until 1974. There, he presented shows about toys as works of art.<ref name="toy valley"/> Raskin announced his resignation from the assistant professorship by flying over the Chancellor's house in a hot air balloon.<ref name="ubiquity.acm.org" /> He was awarded a [[National Science Foundation]] grant to establish a Computer and Humanities center which used several [[16-bit]] [[Data General Nova]] computers and [[Cathode-ray tube|CRT]]s rather than the [[teleprinter|teletypes]] which were more common.

Along with his undergraduate student Jonathan (Jon) Collins, Raskin developed the [[FLOW (programming language)|FLOW]] programming language for use in teaching programming to the art and humanities students.  The language was first used at the Humanities Summer Training Institute held in 1970 at the [[University of Kansas]] in [[Lawrence, Kansas]]. The language has only seven statements ({{code|COMMENT}}, <code>GET IT</code>, <code>PRINT IT</code>, <code>PRINT "text"</code>, <code>JUMP TO</code>, <code>IF IT IS " " JUMP TO</code>, and <code>STOP</code>) and can not manipulate numbers. The language was first implemented in [[Fortran]] by Collins in under a week. Later versions of the language utilized "typing amplification" in which only the first letter is typed and the computer provides the balance of the instruction eliminating typing errors. It was also the basis for programming classes taught by Raskin and Collins in the UCSD Visual Arts Department.

Raskin curated several art shows including one featuring his collection of unusual toys, and presenting toys as works of art.<ref name="toy valley"/> During this period, he changed the spelling of his name from "Jeff" to "Jef" after having met Jon Collins and liking the lack of extraneous letters.

Raskin occasionally wrote for computer publications, such as ''[[Dr. Dobb's Journal]]''. He formed a company named Bannister and Crun, which was named for two characters playing in the [[BBC]] radio comedy ''[[The Goon Show]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt |title=The Father Of The Macintosh |work=Folklore.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071101055018/http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Father_of_The_Macintosh.txt |archive-date=November 1, 2007}}</ref>