Getting to Know the Inventor of Copy Paste and Its History

Inventor of copy paste – Who doesn’t know about the copy and paste feature on computers, laptops, and other types of gadgets. One of the functions on the computer must be very familiar to most people. Especially for those who frequently use computers and such.

This useful function for copying and moving text and images on the computer has a history of its own. The inventor of copy paste is Larry Tesler. For Sinaumed’s who often use this function, of course you have to thank the inventor.

The name Larry Tesler is quite famous and popular because many people call him. Until February 20, 2020, he died at the age of 74.

The term paste is very close to “pasta”. Where paste is also a kind of function that was used by ancient publishers to edit a reading before it was later published. The trick is to use scissors, then “paste” or attach it to another part of the target. To glue it, they use pasta media. Not only the type of pasta is unique, but also the type of scissors too. The mouth of the scissors used has a length of up to 8.5 inches.

Since computers have become popular, scissors and pasta have slowly been abandoned. However, it is not as easy as it is today. In the 1960s, a long string of commands had to be typed to copy a piece of writing and then pasted in a certain place. Then in 1974 to 1975 there was a slight change.

Where an employee at Xerox named Lawrence G. tesler found a way of copy paste that is easier and simpler. Then the right was followed by Apple in 1981 which started copying, ctrl C to cut and ctrl V to paste or paste. This technology becomes more complete with the existence of ctrl Z to cancel or undo. Windows then adopted Apple’s findings.

Meaning of Copy Paste

In computers, the term cut means to cut a file, text, or something else. Cut will not be able to duplicate something that has been cut. The cut function will move a file to its destination. While copy means to copy. The copy command is used to duplicate a file, text, folder, and so on. The way this feature works is to duplicate something and then move it to another place. The cut and copy commands will not work without the paste command. The paste feature is used to paste the results of the cut or copy to the destination.

Background of Larry Tesler the Inventor of Copy Paste

Larry Tesler is an alumnus of the Computer Science major at Stanford University. He graduated in 1960. Throughout college, Tesler did a lot of programming work. So that when he graduates, work as a consultant is also quite easy to do. Because, he was one of the few people who at that time had programming qualifications in Palo Alto. But unfortunately, in the 1960s there was an economic recession which caused the programming consulting business to fade. This made him leave the business and start working for someone else.

The first time he worked was at his alma mater as manager of Stanford University’s AI laboratory. Besides that, he also manages learning at the Mid Peninsula Free University. At that time, the world of technology research was still his passion. So that in the 1970s, Tesler left the laboratory with the research institute owned by XEROX.

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Invention of the Copy Paste Function

In an institution called the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Tesler discovered the Copy and Paste functions. At that time, he collaborated with several people, one of which was Tim Mott, who was in charge of working on the Gypsy text editor project. Within the project, Tesler modeled several methods for copying and moving sections of text. At that time, the functions created by Tesler were directly called copy, paste, and also cut. Tesler’s portfolio on the subject even exists today. Ultimately, Tesler’s performance intrigued Steve Jobs.

Larry Tesler Joins Apple

Steve Jobs considered Tesler’s performance at Xerox a gold mine. Therefore, Steve Jobs accepted Tesler to be part of the genius technicians at Xerox. At the Apple company, Tesler has worked for approximately 20 years. The highest position he ever got was Chief Scientist in 1993.

Several computer products from Apple, such as the Macintosh, Lisa, and Newton, all came from Tesler. Apart from that, Tesler was also a very supportive person that Apple should invest in Advanced RISC Machines or ARM. It is this investment that makes iPhone products stronger. Because, they have become able to build their own strong or powerful chipset ecosystem until now.

Working As a Computer Scientist in Silicon Valley

In the early 1960s, Tesler started working in Silicon Valley. There, he worked at the largest IT companies in the United States. At that time, computers could not be used by most people. Tesler spent approximately 17 years as a computer scientist. He also briefly worked at Amazon and Yahoo after leaving the Apple company.

As previously explained, copy paste was originally made not to take or seize other people’s work. Instead, this function is made to facilitate work. Where this method makes it very easy for the creator to take or cut parts of the text and then move it to another part. So that the creator does not have to bother to retype the information he wants to move.

The use of copy paste was first recorded in 1973 to 1976 by Larry Tesler and his friend, Tim Nott. The function is used for Gypsy programming. Because of its convenience and efficiency, the copy paste function began to spread widely until it is very well known today. Where the convenience can be felt when we want to copy a long piece of information to be copied to another section where previously we had to retype the information and type it manually.

Of course this is very tiring right? Not only will it drain time, it will also drain energy and mind. But with the development of technology, copy and paste actually began to be misused. If it was originally used to make work easier, nowadays copy paste is used to carry out various kinds of plagiarism that occur in written works and others. Apart from all that, we should be grateful to Larry Tesler who has created copy and paste to help many people to solve problems more easily and practically.

Difference between Copy and Paste

When discussing copy paste, of course we are all familiar with one of the functions on these electronic devices. Especially those who often struggle with computers, laptops, or other media that have a copy paste function. With these two features, it is indeed very easy for us to copy a text or document and writing to another place without the need to change the contents.

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The copy paste feature is currently trending because it provides many benefits and really helps with the activity of typing text and documents. We can imagine if when we type, we don’t have the copy and paste feature. Of course we have to retype all the text and documents that we want to copy to later be moved or duplicated on another page. For Sinaumed’s, who may have often heard the term copy paste but don’t know exactly what the difference between the two is. So the explanation below needs to be read carefully. Actually the difference from copy and paste lies in its usability or function. The uses of copy paste are:

a. Copy is a command to copy a document or other text from one place to another. Whether it’s within a single page document or between documents. If you copy it using the “copy” command, the original document or text file will remain.
b. Paste is a command to move or paste a file or document that we have taken by copying.

We can find this copy paste feature in almost all computer and Android programs. For example, in MS Word, MS Excel, Adobe Photshop, Android, Coreldraw, and many more. For its own function must also be sequential. This is because if we want to use the copy feature, then of course we will need the paste feature.

So that what we are going to copy can be moved and duplicated on another page by using the paste feature. Without pasting, our goal of copying documents and text will not work. In order to better understand the difference between copy and paste, here are some fairly easy ways to use the copy paste feature on your computer.

Use of Copy Paste on Computer

a. Select files to copy:

– Text: If you are copying text, then click and drag the cursor until the text you want to copy is marked, then release the click.
– Document: If you want to copy a file, then select the file by pressing and holding down the Ctrl key while the file selection process is in progress.
– Images: If you are going to copy an image, then you can select several images that you want to copy by clicking on the image.

b. Then the next way after you have selected the files to copy, the next step is to click on the right side of the file using the trackpad or mouse. If you use the trackpad by using two fingers or by tapping the right side of the trackpad with just one finger. So make sure that the method is in accordance with the settings on the computer.

c. After that, you can click copy. Then the document or file to be copied will be copied to the clipboard on the computer, as temporary storage

d. For other alternatives, it’s definitely easy to understand the difference between copy and definitely based on its use, that is, you can press the ctrl+c keys simultaneously. Generally for some applications, you can click “edit” in the menu section, then you can click copy.

Those are some explanations about the history of the inventor of copy paste and its development to date. So, is Sinaumed’s also among the people who take advantage of this feature on computers and other devices?