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Started by Chidi Eze (@pixelpushr) ·

Larry Tesler's license plate said NO MODES

He worked at PARC and then Apple and spent his career arguing against modes, where the same key does different things depending on a state you might not notice. Cut/copy/paste as we know it came partly out of his work on the Gypsy editor at PARC with Tim Mott.

6 sources · 31 min down the hole

How I got here

Started with
“larry tesler no modes”
Ended at
Law of conservation of complexity

The Trail

  1. “larry tesler no modes” (google.com)
  2. Larry Tesler (en.wikipedia.org)
  3. Mode (user interface) (en.wikipedia.org)
  4. Cut, copy, and paste (en.wikipedia.org)
  5. Vi (text editor) (en.wikipedia.org)

    the most famous modal thing people still choose on purpose

  6. Law of conservation of complexity (en.wikipedia.org)

    Tesler's law: some complexity can't be removed, only moved. either the user deals with it or the developer does

Keep going