For many of us, using the keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste is as second nature as flipping a light switch. Whether you’re a Mac (Command-) or a PC (Ctrl+) user, these shortcuts make life easier and word processing bearable. But have you ever considered life before these shortcuts? And wondered whom you should thank for them? Continue reading this edition of Tech Time Warp to find out.
The pioneer behind cut, copy, and paste
Thank innovator Larry Tesler, who was passionate about making word processing easier by eliminating what were known as modes. Before cut, copy, and paste, a user had to switch between different “modes” to perform certain tasks. You could easily delete all your work if you weren’t in the correct mode. (Ctrl+Z didn’t exist, either.) Working at Xerox PARC with Tim Mott, Tesler sought to eliminate these modes. The terms cut, copy, and paste were a nod to pre-word processing publishing, where correcting a mistake meant cutting printed type with a utility knife and pasting in a replacement. The terminology helped to make veterans of the “paste up” era more comfortable with desktop publishing.
Cut, copy, and paste were part of the Gypsy word processor, a Xerox PARC project of the mid-1970s. Tesler and Mott saw the eventual move from text-based user interfaces to graphic user interfaces (GUI)—and it wasn’t long before Steve Jobs persuaded Tesler to join Apple to work on the Lisa.
Tesler is also credited with other now-commonplace terms, including “WYSIWYG” (“what you see is what you get”), “user-friendly” and even “browser.” He passed away on Feb. 16, 2020. Xerox tweeted this in his memory: “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.”
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