RoadRunner was the code-name of a Personal Information Manager (PIM) project that Claris developed but canceled in 1990. It started from an earlier exploratory project code-named "SearchLight." The idea was to build an application which individuals could use for daily scheduling, to-do lists, and personal calendars. It would also have built-in workgroup functionality & would integrate with e-mail, schedulers, and MacProject II.
At the time, we were pretty proud of RoadRunner since it...
- was Claris' first product designed and built in-house,
- had a totally new, modern code-base,
- was object-oriented from the primitive data structures up (based on MacApp),
- had very user-centered in its design and functionality,
- was built using MASH*Mail's networking protocol for its workgroup functionality.
Alas, RoadRunner was canceled in 1990 just before reaching alpha as part of Claris' attempt to make a stronger IPO by trimming the projects under development. (Development on SmartForms, MASH*Mail, and AppleWorks GS were also terminated around this time. Our spreadsheet technology, Wingz had just been acquired. It would later ship as Claris Resolve, a rather ironic moniker.) We were told that part of the reasoning behind the cancellation was our lack of a cross-platform solution. Less than a year later, a MacApp-to-Windows product was commercially released. About the same time, another MacApp-based project was started at Claris, MacProject Pro. So much for logic and consistency from the executive staff...
Our "puzzle-piece" product logo design and box art was eventually used when ClarisWorks 1.0 shipped.
Until Claris Organizer appeared in 1995, there wasn't a product on the market which came close to RoadRunner's intended target.
MASH*Mail was totally cool e-mail product that Claris was building in 1988. It was canceled in 1989 because our parent company Apple didn't want us competing with its e-mail system which was under development (PowerTalk.) PowerTalk shipped years late and was never widely adopted, and was eventually killed.
(11/99)