Larry Tesler, the inventor of 'cut, copy, paste', dies at 74

  • IndiaGlitz, [Thursday,February 20 2020]

Pioneering computer scientist Larry Tesler, who invented cut/copy & paste, find & replace, has passed away at the age of 74. A former Xerox researcher, Tesler also coined the term 'browser' in 1976.

Larry Tesler was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1945, and studied at the Stanford University in California. He started working in Silicon Valley in the early 1960s when he invented the concepts of 'cut, copy, paste' that have made the work lives of several million people today easier. Tesler worked with the Apple company for 20 years, where he helped develop the user interface design of the Lisa, Macintosh and Newton, a precursor to the iPhone. The computer scientist later worked with Amazon and Yahoo as well.

Describing his invention of copy/paste, Tesler reportedly said, Conceived, implemented and usability-tested GUI (graphical user interface) and IDE (integrated development environment) capabilities that have become standards in the industry, including the ability to:… insert or overwrite text without entering a mode by simply clicking or dragging and then typing… move or copy text without entering a mode using cut/copy and paste… type or paste find & replace text into a form that can be edited before and after searching.

Xerox paid tribute to Larry Tesler in a post on Twitter that read, 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.