If you’re a regular user of the Internet, a function that you should be extremely familiar with is the Copy-Cut-Paste. It basically did my assignments more than I ever did! This simple function has saved so many lives, we are forever thankful for the brains behind the iconic function, Larry Tesler. Unfortunately, Larry passed away on Monday (Feb 17th) at the age of 74.
I’m sure most of us have never heard of him before today despite using his invention almost on a daily basis. A computer scientist, Larry has worked with many tech industry giants like XEROX, Apple, Amazon and Yahoo! just to name a few. In 1973, Larry and his colleague Tim Mott developed the basic functionality of copy and paste as a way to make computer use easier and more interactive.
After leaving Xerox, he joined Apple and rose through the ranks to become the Vice President of Apple Newton Group and also the chief scientist within the advanced technology group. While he’s most famous for the invention of the copy-cut-paste function, that wasn’t his only achievement! He led the research on developing the Apple Newton which was the predecessor for the tablet computer. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered where did the term browser came from, Larry Tesler was the one to coin the term by creating a Smalltalk code browser.
After leaving Apple and Yahoo!, as of 2009, he was an independent consultant and lived with his wife in the Silicon Valley area with his wife. The cause of his death wasn’t immediately available.
Larry Tesler was an innovative inventor who created a function that helped so many people on a daily basis across multiple devices. So far, 2020 hasn’t been a favorable year with us losing so many legends.
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