Hickman noted how quickly he adapted to the use of the mouse and keyboard, but also that he inadvertently activated pop-up menus and other user interface elements. While using MacPaint that year, his then-3-year-old son expressed a desire to use the application. After leaving college he continued to write programs for his own education, and by 1988 owned an Apple Macintosh and had begun distributing software in the public domain. This impressed upon Hickman a desire to learn how to program. Craig Hickman was studying photography at Evergreen State College in 1972 with the aim of taking a career in fine art photography when he encountered a friend entering code into a teletype in the college's terminal room.
