The Apple Calculator Language

In the late 1970s, Apple co-founder Jef Raskin proposed a calculator-focused programming language that he apparently hoped could evolve into the primary language for the Macintosh (though Pascal ultimately filled that role instead). Raskin was critical of existing languages of his era, particularly BASIC, which he dismissed as weak despite acknowledging its popularity stemmed from minimizing programmer effort rather than superior design. He also criticized declared languages like Pascal and Fortran for being overly complex and poor at reflecting how humans naturally think about problems.