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The world of technology mourns the death of William D. "Bill" Atkinson, one of the leading pioneers of modern computer science, who died on June 5 due to complications related to pancreatic cancer. It had left an indelible mark on the history of Apple and human-computer interaction. Joined Apple in 1978 as employee number 51, he was personally chosen by Steve Jobs to help develop the first generation of Mac computers. Atkinson was a key figure in the team of about 30 people who gave life to the first Macintosh, but his contribution already began with the Lisa project, for which he designed the graphical user interface at a time when the GUI was still a conceptual revolution. He was the inventor of elements now considered fundamental in the computer user experience: from the menu bar to the famous "lasso" for graphic selection, through the animation of "marching ants" and the algorithm for the fast drawing of circles on the screen. One of his most iconic legacies is HyperCard, launched in 1987. It was a revolutionary hypermedia platform that allowed anyone to create software with a modular and visual approach, effectively anticipating the concept of "web" and laying the foundation for the development of interactive applications on Macintosh. Atkinson described it as a "set of software constructions", a simple and powerful idea that helped democratise programming. He also shared with Steve Jobs the idea of RoundRects, those rectangles with bevelled corners that still define the visual style of windows, alerts and buttons in Apple systems. His intellectual curiosity led him to explore the phenomenon of dithering, a technique that allows you to simulate photographic images with single points, similar to what printed newspapers do.

After leaving Apple in 1990, Atkinson joined the legendary startup General Magic along with Andy Hertzfeld and Marc Porat, contributing to a new generation of visionary ideas. In 2007 he approached Numenta, one of the first companies focussed on artificial intelligence, recognising well in advance the potential of this emerging technology. Bill Atkinson leaves a legacy that lives on in every Apple device and in every daily gesture of digital interaction.

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Brenda Kertzmann 7mo ago

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