Computer scientist Larry Tesler, who developed concepts like cut, copy, and paste, has died at the age of 74. He took his last breath on February 17, 2019. Apple insider confirmed the news of Tesler’s death.

Tesler was born in New York in the year 1945 and studied computer science at Stanford University. He joined the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) of Xerox in the year 1973. PARC is well known for its work on graphical user interface and mouse navigation.

He developed the concept of cut, copy, and paste during his tenure at PARC. His idea of cut, copy, and paste soon became a significant component for both computer operating systems and text editors.

Tesler had great expertise in a concept named modeless computing. It was based on the idea that a program should not have different modes, where users’ input performed different tasks based on the mode they were in.

Larry Tesler’s Journey In Apple

Larry Tesler joined the tech giant Apple in 1980. He worked on various products at Apple, including Lisa, Macintosh, QuickTime, and the well known Newton Tablet.

Lisa and Macintosh were the first personal computers via which the concept of cut, copy, and paste gained its popularity. Tesler bagged the role of chief scientist in the year 1993, but later on, in 1997, he left Apple.

Tesler played a significant role in some of the major decisions taken by Apple. He persuaded the company to invest in UK’s Advanced RISC Machines. As claimed by him on his website, Apple invested $5 million on the same and gained around $800 million.

After Leaving Apple

After Apple, Tesler joined Stagecast, which was an education software startup. Later, he worked in some big companies like Yahoo, 23andMe, and Amazon until 2009. In 2009, he started working as a UX consultant and stayed in California.