Larry Tesler, the computer scientist who invented the widely used “cut, copy and paste” has passed on at the age of 74.
Tesler’s former employer, Xerox, announced his passing yesterday on Twitter.
The tweet read, “The inventor of cut/copy & paste, find & replace, and more was former Xerox researcher Larry Tesler.”
Adding, “Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas. Larry passed away Monday, so please join us in celebrating him.”
Tesler specialized in Human-Computer Interaction. After graduating from Stanford University, he worked at Amazon, Apple, Yahoo and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
Related article: The Inventor Of Email Has Passed
The Computer History Museum tweeted about Tesler, “Tesler created the idea of ‘cut, copy, & paste’ and combined computer science training with a counterculture vision that computers should be for everyone.”
Apple, where Tesler worked in 1980, popularised the commands in its 1983 Lisa computer and in the 1984 Macintosh computer.
He was recruited from Xerox by Steve Jobs to Apple, where he worked for 17 years, eventually rising to the role of Chief Scientist.
He then left to found an education startup, and briefly worked at Yahoo and Amazon.
