Larry Tesler, The Man Who Invented The Copy, Cut And Paste Commands Is Dead

Larry Tesler, the computer scientist who invented the cut, copy and paste commands that we are very familiar with has just passed away. 

Tesler died in Portola Valley, California on February 16, 2020, at the age of 74. His most famous innovation, the copy, cut and paste function, has made computer simple and easier to use. The idea it was reported may have been based on the old method of editing in which people would physically cut portions of printed text and glue them elsewhere.

The command was incorporated in Apple's software on the Lisa computer in 1983, and the original Macintosh that was released the following year. 

Mr Tesler was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1945. He studied at Stanford University in California. After graduating, he started working in Silicon Valley in the early 1960s, at a time when computers were inaccessible to the vast majority of people.

During his long career, Tesler worked for a number of major tech firms that includes Xerox PARC, Apple, Amazon, and Yahoo!. 

Tesler strongly believe that computer interfaces should be modeless in which all actions are available to users at all times. Modes require users to switch between functions on software and apps by entering a specific mode which make computers both time-consuming and complicated. 

To promote his belief in modeless PC, Tesler had his car registered with the license number "NO MODES" and he had also been using the phrase "Don't Mode Me In" for years, as a rally cry to eliminate or reduce modes. Even his website was called "nomodes.com" and his Twitter handle was "@nomodes".

As we mourn his passing, we should remember that it was his innovative works that has contributed in making personal computer, and even mobile phones, user-friendly and easy to use today.