Copy and Paste – Processing

Mexico City (apro). – Today almost no one remembers, but the first generation of iPhone, the so-called 3G, which arrived in our country in 2008, lacked the indispensable “copy and paste” function). It took a year for this tool to be included in the iPhone OS 3 operating system, released in June 2009. And it was not the best example of practicality. In fact, new updates had to be made to improve it. It is incredible that such a basic text utility was not present in what should have been a revolutionary invention. Especially since its biggest competitor at the time was the popular BlackBerry, a device designed for working on the go. But this absence is even more strange when you consider the connection that once existed between Apple founder Steve. Workand the creator Copy and PasteLawrence Gordon Tesler, died February 16.

Paste and Copy

As news reports reported last Thursday, Larry Tesler, who has died at the age of 74, was a computer scientist who worked at several of the most prominent companies in the industry, including Apple itself. However, his most relevant contributions were made during his tenure at Xerox. Although the brand does make people more reminiscent of gadgets used for photocopying, in the 70s it was a laboratory for revolutionary innovation. This is how Walter Isaacson recalled it in his biography of Steve Jobs. In an article, he details how Xerox established a research center (Xerox PARC) in Palo Alto, California, in 1970. Involved was scientist Alan Kay, a follower of the maxim “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” https://www.process.com.mx/285778/su-inteligencia-no-era-extraordinaria-pero Kay was an advocate who believed that the early personal computers of the time were so simple that even children could use them. It was with this belief that the idea of ​​developing a graphical interface to replace the terrible monochrome screen of Microsoft DOS systems was born. That’s how the screen that simulated a desk appeared, where documents were saved in folders and discarded in a virtual trash can. This metaphor was not the only thing that Xerox thought of. They also developed bitmap technology that allowed the construction of a visionary and friendly working environment.

“Good artists copy, great artists steal”

The rest of the story is well known: Steve Jobs insisted on knowing what Xerox was working on, and Larry Tesler became one of the people responsible for preparing the presentation for the Apple founder. As Isaacson recounts, Tesler was able to demonstrate a technology that was not fully appreciated by managers at Xerox headquarters, having been shipped three thousand miles from Palo Alto, Connecticut. Despite the jealousy of some members, Tesler himself was responsible for showing Jobs everything that Xerox PARC had created. The businessman responded to what he saw with a famous exclamation: “They’re sitting on a gold mine.” “I can’t believe Xerox didn’t take advantage of this technology.” Jobs took advantage of it and incorporated it into the Macintosh, which, Isaacson says, is considered one of the greatest industrial heists in history. But two quotes from Jobs survive from that incident. One refers to Xerox executives, whom he described as “copying robots who have no idea what a computer can do.” The second, more famous, is about Picasso’s plagiarism: “Good artists copy, great artists steal,” adding: “We never have any qualms about stealing great ideas.”

Copying and stealing

Tesler left Xerox and went to work for Jobs, with whom he developed the famous Lisa computer. But she was the first to spread the news of the innovator’s death to the world. He did it with a tweet: “The inventor of cut, copy and paste, search and replace was Larry Tesler. Thanks to their revolutionary ideas, your job has become easier.” https://twitter.com/Xerox/status/1230228728992714752?s=20 In fact, it was not enough. Hundreds, thousands, or even millions of texts would not have come to light due to his unique ingenuity, and he himself died in article “Modeling a personal history of text editing and cut/copy-paste.” Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of school assignments completed in minutes are due to his talent. There are also all kinds of papers, articles, reviews and so many texts that use the technology created by Tesler to follow Jobs’ cynical philosophy about copying and stealing.