The Human Interface

[Jared Bernard]

With the all the news about Jef Raskin recently because of his death, I've 
learned alot about him lately and just how visionary he was. Before this time 
all I knew about him was that he help develop the GUI for apple and that's 
about it. 
 I've become interested in some of his ideas about The Human Interface. I 
haven't read his book (yet) but was hoping to get some feed back from some of 
you who have studied some of his theories/ideas or read his book.  Here are 
some questions that I have, solely for the purpose of understanding others 
perspectives or interpretations of Raskin's work. 

1) Not having studied Computer science, Is Raskins ideas about the Human 
Interface considered more theory or fact?

2) How closely does Apple's GUI reflect Raskin's ideas?

3) Are there other GUI's out now there that more closely reflect The Human 
Interface, i.e. KDE, Gnome, Wmaker, Icewm, etc? What is it about those GUI's  
that do or don't agree with his ideas?

4) What is the basis of his Human Interface? I mean, my basic understanding is 
that he essentially has ideas about what is the most natural design or 
environment for humans to interact with a computer. What does he use to 
determine that? It seems that he's trying to develop this perfect environment 
but is that possible? Anyone who has experience other cultures know that 
people think differently and interact differently, so wouldn't culture or 
environment contribute to whats most natural? or am I way off as to what he 
is trying to do?

Any other thoughts?
JB