- Bill Atkinson died on June 5 after the fight against pancreas. He was 74 years old. Atkinson was one of the earliest Apple Employees who are responsible for the most important Mac software and their graphical user interfaces. But in the end he won the respect of his boss, the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, and created a version of a high-ranking programming language for the Apple II computer in just six days.
Bill AtkinsonThe 1978 – two years after its foundation – worked at Apple until 1990, died on June 5 after fighting pancreatic cancer. His family wrote on Facebook. He was 74.
Atkinson was the 51st employee at Apple and was personally recruited by Steve Jobs. According to Walter Isaacson’s biography of the jobsAtkinson, a doctoral student in neurosciences at this time, initially rejected Apple’s request to work in the company. But Steve Jobs sent Atkinson a not reimbursable flight ticket and then gave him a three -hour pitch about why he should join the company.
“Think about surfing on the front of a wave,” remembered Jobs, which Atkinson told in this meeting. “It’s really exciting. Now you think of dog paddling at the end of this wave. It wouldn’t be almost as much fun. Come down here and do a dent in the universe.”
Atkinson accepted the job offer – and as a result, he never ended his doctoral thesis.
Atkinson would develop some of Apple’s most important software, including QuickDraw, which made it possible to draw old Apple computers to draw pictures and windows on the screen, and Hypercard, a user-friendly software development kit so that creators can create their own applications. He also developed the graphic user interface of the Apple Lisa, a forerunner of the Macintosh and later several user interfaces of the Mac. However, his very first task was to develop a program that was able to pursue stock portfolios. The software would automatically set the DOW Jones service to get quotes and then hang up.
However, his second project at Apple was ultimately how Atkinson won the respect of jobs.
The jobs had opposed the use of a new programming language for the Apple II, one of Apple’s earliest and most popular PCs, which produced many successors -including the Lisa, the Apple III, Apple II Plus, Apple IIC, Apple IIC Plus -, although most of these computers were wrapped in for the apple -iie. At that time, the jobs had resisted to give Apple II a new programming language that was fundamentally thought. However, Atkinson pushed jobs to build something better.
“Since you are so enthusiastic, I give you six days to prove the opposite,” said Jobs about Atkinson, Isaacson’s biography of the Apple co-founder.
Sure enough, in just six days, Atkinson had created a special version of Pascal, a high -ranking programming language that was specially made for Apple II. According to Isaacson, “the jobs always respected him.”
Atkinson later left Apple in 1990 to take his own company with them, General magicThe forerunners for USB and small touchscreens built. In 2007 he was an external developer for a small startup called named numberThis uses what we know about human neurosciences to develop AI. But Atkinson also spent a large part of his later years as work as a work Nature photographerWith a digital printing process, which he created and a mobile app he developed, so that users can remove postcards from their digital images in order to send by post or email.
Atkinson is replaced by his wife, two daughters, a stepson, his stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters and his dog Poppy Facebook message of the family.
This story was originally on Fortune.com
