Steve Capps is an American computer programmer, who was one of the designers of the original

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and ...

computer. Capps started working at the

Xerox Corporation Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Sta ...

while still a

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

student at the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

. In 1981, Capps started working for Apple on the

Lisa Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...

project and he continued his work on the Macintosh, principally writing the Finder (along with

Bruce Horn Bruce Lawrence Horn (born 1960) is a programmer and creator. He created the Macintosh Finder and the Macintosh Resource Manager for Apple Computer. His signature is amongst those molded to the case of the Macintosh 128K. He is a distinguished e ...

) and Macintosh system utilities—such as

ResEdit ResEdit is a discontinued developer tool application for the Apple Macintosh, used to create and edit resources directly in the Mac's resource fork architecture. It was an alternative to tools such as REdit, and the resource compiler ''Rez.'' Fo ...

. During a break in 1986, he wrote three music programs including

Jam Session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without exte ...

, SoundEdit, and Super Studio Session; SoundEdit was eventually sold to

Macromedia Macromedia, Inc., was an American graphics, multimedia, and web development software company (1992–2005) headquartered in San Francisco, California, that made products such as Flash and Dreamweaver. It was purchased by its rival Adobe Systems ...

. From 1987 to 1996, he was the chief architect and Apple Fellow for the

Apple Newton The Newton is a series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. An early device in the PDA category (the Newton originated the term), it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started ...

, where he led the specification and development of the user interface of Newton, shepherded the team of software developers, and wrote many portions of the built-in application software. From 1996 until 2001, he was a user interface architect at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

. His early work at Microsoft resulted in the

Internet Explorer Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Internet Explorer, commonly abbreviated IE or MSIE) is a series of graphical user interface, graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft which was used in the Microsoft Wind ...

Search, History, and Favorites panes. He was also a co-founder of the

MSN Explorer MSN Dial-up is an Internet service provider operated by Microsoft in the United States and formerly also in several other countries. Originally named The Microsoft Network, it debuted as a proprietary online service on August 24, 1995, to coinci ...

project. As of 2010, he was working at Silicon Valley start-up

Kwedit Kwedit was a website that helped people without credit or debit cards purchase virtual goods online. People could purchase items online and promise to pay for the items later, through mail-in payments, payments at a 7-Eleven 7-Eleven, Inc., ...

, now called PayNearMe, focusing on online payment systems. At that time, he was married to lawyer Marie D'Amico and had one child, Emma T Capps, who was born in 1997.

References

External links

Steve Capps Day at AppleSteve Capps' user interface design company
American computer programmers Apple Fellows Living people People from San Carlos, California Year of birth missing (living people) Berkeley Macintosh Users Group members {{mac-stub