Man Behind ‘Cut, Copy And Paste’ Dies

Feb 20, 2020, 10:28 IST

SAN FRANCISCO: The computer scientist who invented the widely used 'cut/copy & paste, find & replace' command in our computers died this week. Bronx-born Lawrence "Larry" Tesler passed away at the age of 74 on Monday.

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, 2020

Larry was a graduate of Stanford University and specialized in human-computer interaction, employing his skills at Amazon, Apple, Yahoo, and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

The cut and paste command was reportedly inspired by old-time editing that involved actually cutting portions of printed text and affixing them elsewhere with adhesive.

Today we also bid farewell to computing visionary Larry Tesler. Tesler created the idea of “cut, copy, & paste” and combined computer science training with a counterculture vision that computers should be for everyone. Watch Tesler’s CHM demo https://t.co/DbH5J7sLbm pic.twitter.com/RMbRSQcYeW

— Computer History Museum (@ComputerHistory) February 20, 2020

The command was made popular by Apple after being incorporated in software on the Lisa computer in 1983 and the original Macintosh that debuted the next year.

Tesler worked for Apple in 1980 after being recruited away from Xerox by late co-founder Steve Jobs. He had spent 17 years at Apple, rising to chief scientist.

He went on to establish an education startup and do stints in user-experience technology at Amazon and Yahoo.

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