Inventor of Copy/Paste, Larry Tesler of Xerox PARC dies at age 74

[Halcyon]

Larry Tesler, the Silicon Valley pioneer who created the now-ubiquitous computer concepts such as "cut," "copy" and "paste," has died. He was 74.

He made using computers easier for generations as a proponent and pioneer of what he called "modeless editing." That meant a user wouldn't have to use a keyboard to switch between modes to write and edit, for example.

"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," Xerox said in a tweet on Wednesday.


In this 1970s photo provided by Xerox PARC, Larry Tesler uses the Xerox Parc Alto early personal computer system.

Tesler was born in New York and attended Stanford University, where he received a degree in mathematics in 1965.

In 1973, he joined Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, a division of the copier company that worked on creating computer products. There, he pioneered concepts that helped make computers more user-friendly. That included such concepts as moving text through cut and paste and inserting text by clicking on a section and just typing.

He continued that work when he joined Apple in 1980. At Apple, he worked on a variety of products including the Lisa computer, the Newton personal digital assistant and the Macintosh.

After leaving Apple in 1997 he co-founded an education software company and held executive positions at Amazon, Yahoo and the genetics-testing service 23andMe before turning to independent consulting.

In 2012, Tesler told the BBC that he enjoyed working with younger people. "There's a very strong element of excitement, of being able to share what you've learned with the next generation," he said.

Tesler was remembered in numerous social media posts such as this one:

"No one can Ctrl+F and Replace a person whose hard work made my work so much easier from high school to college to my professional life," Twitter user Lowell A. Doringo wrote. "Thank you Larry Tesler and my condolences to your family. #RIPLarry"

Source: https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/computer-scientist-who-invented-copy-and-paste-has-died-20200221-p542yq.html

[DTJ]

What is that on his desk to the left of the keyboard?

[rdl]

Pretty amazing how much was created at Xerox PARC.

Dealers of Lightning

[ebastler]

What is that on his desk to the left of the keyboard?

A chord keyboard. Like the mouse, it was invented by Douglas Engelbart at Stanford Research Institute, and implemented by Xerox in the Alto.

Wikipedia has an article on chorded keyboards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard

[helius]

It was called the "keyset", and I believe it was inspired by the stenograph.
You can enter letters with either a keyset or a traditional keyboard, so there is not actually a need to have both of them.
On the Xerox Altos, the levers of the keyset were labeled with commands such as "copy" and "paste", and used to extend the range of input gestures, instead of duplicating the letter entry function already handled by the keyboard.

The history of new ideas is always more complicated than it is presented in popular accounts. For example, "copy" and "paste" did not spring into existence in the way we know them today. I recommend you watch this interview/demonstration with Larry Tesler showing the document preparation software he designed at Xerox, called Gypsy:



In the original conception, it was cut/paste, with each cut region appearing in a pane called the Wastebasket. From the Wastebasket, text could be pasted into the document. The basic problem was how to support moving text over distances greater than the window could show at one time. There were already systems that could insert text from one region to another, but if you couldn't see both areas on the screen at the same time you wouldn't be able to invoke the command (because the line numbers would be offscreen).

[SiliconWizard]

Pretty amazing how much was created at Xerox PARC.

Yup. Incredible times.

The Alto computer itself and all the software with it was an amazing work at the time.

It's interesting to remind people that this guy actually worked at Apple for years, so (for those still thinking that) Apple didn't steal anything from Xerox. They made a deal with them and even got Larry Tesler to help transfering the technology... they didn't do that all by themselves at Apple.

Anyway, I don't know if research organizations these days are as "productive" and innovative as Xerox PARC was.