A magazine about programmers, code, and society. Written by and for humans since 2018.
November 2nd, 2026
Welcome to the 98th issue of De Programmatica Ipsum, about Apple. In this edition, Graham reminisces on his own experience as a software engineer at Apple and its peculiar methodology choices; Adrian points out Apple's infamous disdain of third-party developers; in our Vidéothèque section, we watch Steve Jobs getting trolled during WWDC'97, and then French journalist Sonia Devillers analyzing the terrible "Crush" advertising campaign; and in the Library section, we review "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders" by Jim Carlton, and "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made," by Andy Hertzfeld.
by Graham Lee
I have got a pretty clear model of how software engineering works, or is supposed to work. Like most people, I am a product of my time and my experiences, with new information and experiences getting incorporated (or sometimes filtered) through the weight of my history. As someone who became a professional software engineer at the start of the 21st century, those experiences mostly come from the period when object-oriented programming hit the plateau of productivity and agile software development rode the whole hype cycle, with some teams now being productive and many more mired in the trough of disillusionment through botched or misunderstood adoptions.
by Adrian Kosmaczewski
For a short period in time, around the end of the 1990s and beginning of the 2000s, it seemed as if Apple actually cared about third-party developers hard at work creating software for their platforms. Of course this interest waned as soon as it was clear that Apple was on track to become the most valuable company on the face of Earth. Getting software developers interested in Apple was always a one-way road paved with obstacles.
You have almost certainly seen the video before, because it gets trotted out on LinkedIn every time someone wants to boast about how humble they are. The context: Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), 1997. The dramatis personae: an alleged Robert Hamisch, allegedly an engineer at a Sun Microsystems reseller, and Steven P. Jobs (verified, blue checkmark), CEO of Pixar, Inc. and advisor to Apple Computer, Inc. after the purchase of his computing startup, NeXT, Inc.
On September 22nd, 1984, the then French president François Mitterand and West Germany chancellor Helmut Kohl visited the Douamont Ossary, paying tribute to the soldiers who fought in the infamous battle of Verdun during World War I. In a highly symbolic gesture, both chiefs of state held hands during the ceremony, showing the reconciliation between the French and the German, less than 40 years after the end of World War II, and merely 5 years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
You may be surprised to hear it, but Apple Computer, Inc. did not survive the turn of the millennium. This was the topic of the 1997 book Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders by Jim Carlton. Despite still having a couple of years to go, it was clear to Carlton that Apple was on the way out, and that his book was a fitting epitaph for this once-great icon of American business. The only potential way for the company to survive would be a miracle.
The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, released in April 1996 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Apple, is a machine that few people remember, and with reason. It was named the 25th "Worst Tech Product of All Time" by PC World magazine, and to be honest, it was hideous and, needless to say, insanely expensive. Of course, as soon as Jobs returned to the company, the machine was promptly dismissed and phased out.
