A famend Apple engineer who was instrumental in growing modern-day computing has died. Invoice Atkinson, who was a part of Apple’s unique Macintosh growth group, died of pancreatic most cancers at 74, based on a Facebook post made by his household on June 5.
His contributions to Apple and the Macintosh private laptop are nonetheless extensively used at present, together with basic UI components just like the menu bar, double-clicking and the choice lasso. Nevertheless, Atkinson’s work goes a lot deeper than that, since he is partly accountable for the foundational design language that influenced Apple’s early days. His legacy contains creating MacPaint, an software that confirmed the world what a graphics-based system appears like at a time when text-based methods have been the norm, and growing QuickDraw, a graphics toolbox that the Macintosh and Lisa computer systems use. To make computer systems extra user-friendly, Atkinson additionally designed HyperCard, an Apple software that launched hypertext to on a regular basis customers and never simply programmers. Tim Prepare dinner paid tribute to Atkinson, posting on X, that he was a “true visionary whose creativity, coronary heart, and groundbreaking work on the Mac will ceaselessly encourage us.”
Past Apple, Atkinson was one among three co-founders for Common Magic, a software program and electronics firm that equipped merchandise to Motorola and Sony within the 90s. Later, he labored with Numenta in 2007, which was a startup centered on artificial intelligence. Atkinson was additionally a seasoned nature photographer, publishing a ebook referred to as Throughout the Stone that highlights polished and reduce rocks with close-up pictures. Atkinson is survived by his spouse, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, 4 sisters, and canine, Poppy.
