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Bill Atkinson, Macintosh Pioneer and Inventor of Hypercard, Dies at 74
Atkinson’s gleeful brilliance helped people draw on computer screens and access information via links.
Atkinson, who had become disenchanted at the Lisa’s high price tag, embraced the idea of a more affordable version, and began writing MacPaint, the program that would empower users to create art on the Mac’s bit-mapped screen. It was a vision that harkened back to a 1940s idea by scientist Vannevar Bush which had been sharpened by a technologist named Ted Nelson, who called the linking technique “hypertext.” But it was Atkinson who made the software work for a popular computer. Soon after, he joined several of his Mac team colleagues, along with future technology stars like Tony Fadell (who would later help invent the iPod) and Megan Smith (who became CTO of the United States under Obama) to form General Magic, a brilliant effort to build a handheld device that basically did everything the iPhone would do 15 years later.
Or read this on Wired
