Larry Tessler, inventor of "cut, copy, paste", has died at the age of 74

Larry Tessler, the scientist who made important innovations in computers such as cut, copy and paste, has died at the age of 74.

 Larry Tessler was known as an icon in the world of computing.  He began working in Silicon Valley in the 1960's, when public access to computers was limited.

 Important innovations such as 'cut, copy, paste' and 'find and replace' made it much easier to learn and use a personal computer.

 Larry Tessler spent most of his career at Xerox.  The company has paid tribute to him.  The company tweeted "Cut, Copy, Paste", "Find and Replace" and similar innovations by former Xerox researcher Larry Tessler.  Your day-to-day office work is easier because of their revolutionary ideas.

Larry Tessler was born in New York in 1945 and graduated from Stanford University in California.

 After graduation, he became an expert in interface design, making computers easier for users to use.

 In his long career, he worked for several large technology companies.  After Xerox, Steve Jobs took him to Apple, where he spent 17 years and became chief scientist.  After Apple, he also spent some time on Amazon and Yahoo.

 "It's like a right of passage," he told the BBC in an exclusive interview in 2012.  If you make some money, you don't just retire, you spend your time investing in other companies.

 "There's an element of interest in telling your next generation what you've learned."

 'Counter Culture Vision'

 Perhaps Larry Tessler's most famous innovation was the "cut copy-paste" commands, based on the oldest methods of editing, in which people cut pieces of paper and pasted them from one place to another.

The command was first introduced in 1983 in the Apple Lisa computer.  The first Macintosh was introduced to the market the following year.

 One of Larry Tesler's ideas was that computer systems should stop using "modes", which were common in software design at the time.

 Modes help users move between software and apps, but it also slows down the computer, which can be a waste of time and a complication.

 His idea was so strong that he even named his website No Modes.com, meaning refusing to use the mode.  Tesla's Twitter account was at No Modes and even his car's license plate number was 'No Modes'.

 According to the Silicon Valley Computer History Museum, Tessler adapted computer science training to counter-culture vision so that computers could be used by everyone.