{"id":29227,"date":"2025-06-07T21:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29227"},"modified":"2025-06-07T22:24:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-07T22:24:05","slug":"bill-atkinson-who-made-computers-easier-to-use-is-dead-at-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=29227","title":{"rendered":"Bill Atkinson, Who Made Computers Easier to Use, Is Dead at 74"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

A designer for Apple, he created software that made it possible to display shapes, images and text on the screen and present a simulated \u201cdesktop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Bill Atkinson, the Apple Computer designer who created the software that enabled the transformative visual approach pioneered by the company\u2019s Lisa and Macintosh computers, making the machines accessible to millions of users without specialized skills, died on Thursday night at his home in Portola Valley, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 74.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, his family said the cause was pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n

It was Mr. Atkinson who programmed QuickDraw, a foundational software layer used for both the Lisa and Macintosh computers; composed of a library of small programs, it made it possible to display shapes, text and images on the screen efficiently.<\/p>\n

The QuickDraw programs were embedded in the computers\u2019 hardware, providing a distinctive graphical user interface that presented a simulated \u201cdesktop,\u201d displaying icons of folders, files and application programs.<\/p>\n

Mr. Atkinson is credited with inventing many of the key aspects of graphical computing, such as \u201cpull down\u201d menus and the \u201cdouble-click\u201d gesture, which allows users to open files, folders and applications by clicking a mouse button twice in succession.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Before the Macintosh was introduced in January 1984, most personal computers were text-oriented; graphics were not yet an integrated function of the machines. And computer mice pointing devices were not widely available; software programs were instead controlled by typing arcane commands.<\/p>\n

The QuickDraw library had originally been designed for Apple\u2019s Lisa computer, which was introduced in January 1983. Intended for business users, the Lisa predated many of the Macintosh\u2019s easy-to-use features, but priced at $10,000 (almost $33,000 in today\u2019s money), it was a commercial failure.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A designer for Apple, he created software that made it possible to display shapes, images and text on the screen and present a simulated \u201cdesktop.\u201dBill Atkinson, the Apple Computer designer who created the software that enabled the transformative visual approach pioneered by the company\u2019s Lisa and Macintosh computers, making the machines accessible to millions of users without specialized skills, died on Thursday night at his home in Portola Valley, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was 74.In a Facebook post, his family said the cause was pancreatic cancer.It was Mr. Atkinson who programmed QuickDraw, a foundational software layer used for both the Lisa and Macintosh computers; composed of a library of small programs, it made it possible to display shapes, text and images on the screen efficiently.The QuickDraw programs were embedded in the computers\u2019 hardware, providing a distinctive graphical user interface that presented a simulated \u201cdesktop,\u201d displaying icons of folders, files and application programs.Mr. Atkinson is credited with inventing many of the key aspects of graphical computing, such as \u201cpull down\u201d menus and the \u201cdouble-click\u201d gesture, which allows users to open files, folders and applications by clicking a mouse button twice in succession.Before the Macintosh was introduced in January 1984, most personal computers were text-oriented; graphics were not yet an integrated function of the machines. And computer mice pointing devices were not widely available; software programs were instead controlled by typing arcane commands.The QuickDraw library had originally been designed for Apple\u2019s Lisa computer, which was introduced in January 1983. Intended for business users, the Lisa predated many of the Macintosh\u2019s easy-to-use features, but priced at $10,000 (almost $33,000 in today\u2019s money), it was a commercial failure.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29229,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29227"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29230,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29227\/revisions\/29230"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}