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Larry Tesler

 

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Larry Tesler



 
 
Larry (formally Lawrence) Gordon Tesler (born April 24, 1945) is a computer scientist
Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a person who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
 working in the field of human-computer interaction. Tesler has worked at Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC

PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology....
, Apple Computer
Apple Computer

Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer Inc., is an United States multinational corporation which designs and manufactures consumer electronics and software products....
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American electronic commerce company in Seattle, Washington. It is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the internet sales revenue of runner up Staples, Inc....
, and Yahoo!
Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an United States public company corporation with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, , and provides Internet services worldwide....


Tesler studied computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 at Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
 in the 1960s, and worked for a time at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. From 1973 to 1980, he was at Xerox PARC, where, among other things, he worked on the Gypsy
Gypsy (software)

Gypsy was the first modern document preparation system, using the modern style of graphical user interface , and would be familiar to any user of a modern personal computer....
 word processor
Word processor

A word processor is a computer Application software used for the production of any sort of printable material.Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for th...
 and Smalltalk
Smalltalk

Smalltalk is an Object-oriented programming, Type system, reflection computer programming programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human?computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist learning, at PARC by Al...
.

In 1980, Tesler moved to Apple Computer, where he held various positions, including Vice President of AppleNet, Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group, and Chief Scientist.






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Larry (formally Lawrence) Gordon Tesler (born April 24, 1945) is a computer scientist
Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a person who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
 working in the field of human-computer interaction. Tesler has worked at Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC

PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology....
, Apple Computer
Apple Computer

Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer Inc., is an United States multinational corporation which designs and manufactures consumer electronics and software products....
, Amazon.com
Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is an American electronic commerce company in Seattle, Washington. It is America's largest online retailer, with nearly three times the internet sales revenue of runner up Staples, Inc....
, and Yahoo!
Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an United States public company corporation with headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, , and provides Internet services worldwide....


Tesler studied computer science
Computer science

Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation, and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems....
 at Stanford University
Stanford University

Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private university research university located in Stanford, California, California, United States....
 in the 1960s, and worked for a time at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. From 1973 to 1980, he was at Xerox PARC, where, among other things, he worked on the Gypsy
Gypsy (software)

Gypsy was the first modern document preparation system, using the modern style of graphical user interface , and would be familiar to any user of a modern personal computer....
 word processor
Word processor

A word processor is a computer Application software used for the production of any sort of printable material.Word processor may also refer to an obsolete type of stand-alone office machine, popular in the 1970s and 80s, combining the keyboard text-entry and printing functions of an electric typewriter with a dedicated computer for th...
 and Smalltalk
Smalltalk

Smalltalk is an Object-oriented programming, Type system, reflection computer programming programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human?computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist learning, at PARC by Al...
.

In 1980, Tesler moved to Apple Computer, where he held various positions, including Vice President of AppleNet, Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group, and Chief Scientist. He worked on the Lisa
Lisa

'Lisa' is a name derived from Elizabeth. It was/is most popular in the English-speaking world among females born in the 1960s and has slowly declined in popularity since....
 team, and was enthusiastic about the development of the Apple Macintosh as the successor to the Lisa.

In 1985, Tesler worked with Niklaus Wirth
Niklaus Wirth

Niklaus Emil Wirth is a Switzerland computer science, best known for designing several programming languages, including Pascal , and for pioneering several classic topics in software engineering....
 to add object-oriented language extensions to the Pascal
Pascal (programming language)

Pascal is an influential imperative programming and Procedural programming programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structure....
 programming language, calling the new language Object Pascal
Object Pascal

Object Pascal refers to a branch of Object-oriented programming derivatives of Pascal , mostly known as the primary programming language of CodeGear Delphi....
. He also was instrumental in developing MacApp
MacApp

MacApp was Apple Computer's primary object oriented application framework for the Mac OS for much of the 1990s. First released in 1985, it is arguably the first such system to be widely used, notably on a microcomputer platform....
, one of the first class libraries for application development. Eventually, these two technologies became shipping Apple products.

Starting in 1990, Tesler led the efforts to develop the Apple Newton
Apple Newton

The MessagePad was the first series of personal digital assistant devices developed by Apple Inc. for the Newton . Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was done in Japan by the Sharp Corporation....
, initially as Vice President of the Advanced Development Group, and then as Vice President of the Personal Interactive Electronics division.

In 1991, he contributed the article "Networked Computing in the 1990s" to Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks, September, 1991.

Tesler left Apple in 1997 to co-found Stagecast Software, which allowed him to apply his enthusiasm for kids' programming and use of computers, an enthusiasm he acquired mainly at Xerox PARC, where he worked in Alan Kay
Alan Kay

Alan Curtis Kay is an United States computer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and Window graphical user interface design....
's Learning Research Group.

Tesler joined Amazon.com in 2001; in 2004, he became the company's Vice President of Shopping Experience. In 2005, he joined Yahoo! as Vice President of Yahoo!'s User Experience and Design group.

In November, 2008, he left Yahoo to join personal genetics information company, 23andMe
23andMe

23andMe is a privately held personal genomics and biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California that is developing new methods and technologies which can enable consumers to understand their own genetic information....
 as Product Fellow.

Tesler is on the board of the Gorilla Foundation.

Tesler has a strong preference for modeless software, in which a user action has a consistent effect, rather than changing its meaning dependent on previous actions, as in the vi
Vi

vi is a family of screen-oriented text editors which share common characteristics, such as methods of invocation from the operating system command interpreter, and characteristic user interface features....
 text editor. As an example of this preference, as of 2007 Tesler's Subaru automobile has a personalized California license plate with the license number "NO MODES". He has used this license number since about 1980.

See also

  • Tesler's Theorem
  • List of programmers
    List of programmers

    This is a list of programmers notable for their contributions to software, either as original author or architect, or for later additions.See also: Game programmer, List of computer scientists...
  • List of computer scientists
    List of computer scientists

    This is a list of well-known computer scientists, people who do work in computer science, in particular researchers and authors.Some persons notable as programmers are included here because they work in research as well as program....


External links

  • from Interaction-Design.org
  • Stagecast site