Silicon Valley lamented on Wednesday the death of one of the pioneers of computing and one of the main responsible for the usability and popularization of computer science. Lawrence Larry Tesler, inventor of the essential command cut, copy, paste passed away this week at age 74, as announced in a tweet the company Xerox, for which he worked for much of his career. "The inventor of cutting / copying & pasting, searching & replacing and much more was the former Xerox researcher, Larry Tesler," the company said on Twitter. "Your daily work is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas. Larry passed away on Monday, so let's join in celebrating it."
The inventor of cut / copy & paste, find & replace, and more was former Xerox researcher Larry Tesler. Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas. Larry passed away Monday, so please join us in celebrating him. Photo credit: Yahoo CC-By-2.0 https://t.co/MXijSIMgoA pic.twitter.com/kXfLFuOlon
- Xerox (@Xerox) February 19, 2020Graduated from Stanford University, he specialized in the interaction between computers and people, and worked at Amazon, Apple, Yahoo and the Palo Alto Research Center of Xerox (PARC). It was there that he developed the cut and paste function, supposedly inspired by the editorial practice of trimming portions of texts and adhering them elsewhere, and applied it to both text editors and complete computer operating systems.
This development center of Xerox, by the way, has given many more key contributions to the history of computing: it was there that Douglas Engelbart developed in 1967 the first external device to send orders to the computer: the mouse, a simple wooden case which covered two metal wheels. It was a gossip that could be moved by hand and allowed the corresponding movement to be transferred to the screen. The notion of operating inside a computer with a tool located outside was revolutionary, although the device was not for sale until 1984, accompanying Apple's Macintosh, which made the mouse a standard identity sign on computers. .. and with it you could copy and paste text fragments.
Creation
"Tesler created the idea of cutting, copying, & pasting and combining computer training with a countercultural vision that computers should be for everyone," the Silicon Valley computer history museum said Wednesday on its Twitter account, according to AFP.
In 1980, Tesler joined Apple and worked in the Steve Jobs company until 1997 (even without Steve Jobs). Dutrante his stay collaborated in the development of several products, such as Macintosh, the QuickTime program, the Lisa computer and the Newton tablet. In fact, Macintosh and Lisa were the first personal computers that popularized cutting and copying and pasting operations, thanks in large part to Tesler's participation. In 1993, he rose to the post of chief scientist, a position that had also been co-founded by Steve Wozniak.
After leaving Apple, Tesler worked at Stagecast, an educational software company that had been created by Apple, and was also employed at Amazon (developing the shopping experience), at Yahoo and the 23andMe personal genomics and biotechnology company. Since 2009, he dedicated himself to his user experience consulting company based in California.
Your contribution does not only remain in the controlcé controluve . He was a defender of the so-called modeless computing , that is, that the programs only had a single way to make life easier for users. If none of this sounds to you, it is because the programs already only work in a single way, just as he wanted. So much so, that your personal website is called nomodes.com
