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Retrocomputing

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  • Except that it still didn't support radio buttons in 1984 (see the note in the first picture) - nor were (round pre-text) radio buttons used in finder. Commented Jun 24 at 10:35
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    @Raffzahn The question is only about the appearance of the buttons (not whether it was the system which controlled the behaviour), and does not make a difference between apps and system apps. Commented Jun 24 at 10:50
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    Early prototype releases of the Macintosh system software did not differentiate between radio buttons and check boxes. Both used the square style that we now associate with check boxes. (As jeffB's answer mentions, this was also the style on the Lisa OS, so it makes sense that it was carried over by the initial Mac development team.) However, this distinction was added during development before the final RTM (release to manufacturing), so you are right that the Macintosh was the first to implement this now-common UI paradigm. Commented Jun 25 at 0:19
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    The note that @Raffzahn seems to be referring to is only saying that the system (control/window manager) doesn't automatically handle the logic of deselecting one radio button when another one is selected. This is, as mentioned, a virtue of the fact that it had no notion of grouping at this time. Early versions of Windows also didn't have this, either. But the programmer could (and was expected to) still enforce mutual selection, which meets the paradigm for radio buttons. Plus, as noted, the appearance was distinct. The system software did implement round radio buttons. Commented Jun 25 at 0:22
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    Raffzahn, the Mac API required a certain amount of programmer effort to make things work, that doesn't mean MacOS didn't implement the function. For another example, early MacOS applications had to write special code in the event loop to pass a mouse press in the title bar to the Toolbox. If you the programmer forgot to include this code, your windows could not be moved. This doesn't mean that windows on the original Mac were not movable. Commented Jun 25 at 0:22