Vector Graphics Software
Software has come a long way in over 40 years. The first vector drawing program was apparently written in 1963! It's called Sketchpad:
This looks amazing, but the Macintosh is really what allowed programmers to create sophisticated applications that were also easy to use. The first (and still best) mac vector drawing application was Illustrator in 1987:
Illustrator progressed quite a lot in one year:
Illustrator had such a polish and finishedness about it. It was deliberate in it's design, catering to an industry with specific solutions. I feel that Illustrator CS4 (really all the CS's) has diluted some of that refinement in favor of more features and fancier marketing. Some tools I use everyday are buried in menus and pallets while others are placed right in the toolbox because they are new and listed on the box, no matter how many use them regularly.
I hope that the current Adobe will hearken back to their early years and focus on delivering quality, easy to use applications instead of new ways to bundle and market, synergy, blah blah blah. I love Illustrator, it is still the application I enjoy using the most, I just get tired of seeing the unexpectedly quit dialogue every day.
I found the videos via John Nack.