I think you have drawn an incorrect inference from that text.

Raskin, the founder of the Macintosh project at Apple, was a visiting scholar at Stanford for a year. He and others in the AI lab "were tightly intermixed with the people at PARC" (Quoting http://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/interview... ).

I believe he knew what a Starlike WIMP user interface entailed.

He also "explained the details and rationale of the work at PARC to Atkinson, Jobs and others. PARCs philosophy was therefore well known at Apple [before Jobs' famous visit]". - http://www.digibarn.com/friends/jef-raskin/writings/holes.ht... .

I don't think Raskin liked WIMP very much. You can see what his original vision for the Macintosh was in the Canon Cat, which he went on to develop after leaving apple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_Cat

I had read a lot about the Cat, but never saw it in action, so I decided to look for a video. This is a fascinating view into Raskin's user interface concepts. The world might have been a very different place if Jobs hadn't interfered with the Macintosh project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TlE_U_X3c

If you're near the SF Peninsula and are curious to see a Cat in person, I have a working one here in Menlo Park, and an open invitation to any HN regulars who are interested in trying it out.

It is indeed a very different UI concept! No pointing device. No graphics. Not even cursor keys, instead it has LEAP keys to navigate.

I keep thinking I should sell the machine since I don't really do anything with it, but it's here for the time being. Email is in my profile.

I lived in the Bay Area for 15 years, but I don't any more. Thanks for the offer. I would love to see it.

There seems to be very little information about it on YouTube. It would be great if you could make some videos about it, or lend it to someone who could. I would do it if I were still in California. I have really been getting into documenting obscure retro computer stuff recently. Mostly old Macs. I have 14. :-)

It's a cute device. Today you could emulate it in Javascript, which would yield a decent editor.