The origin of keyboard shortcuts by Bill Atkinson
Last year I wrote a blog post professing my love for keyboard shortcuts. It's a good blog post, so, every so often I have my automated social media assistant, MeetEdgar, repost it.
When MeetEdgar reposted it to Facebook the other day, I received a surprising response from none other than Bill Atkinson—an essay explaining how keyboard shortcuts came to be on the Lisa and Macintosh.
I'm stoked. For one thing, Bill Atkinson—the guy who created awesome Mac stuff like HyperCard, QuickDraw, and MacPaint (to name a few)—replied to my Facebook post. Thanks, Bill. You're a cool dude.
Second, I never knew that Doug Engelbart, who (among other things) invented the computer mouse, was the one who talked Bill into adding keyboard shortcuts to the Lisa and Macintosh "for power users."
OMG! Thank you so much, Doug!
And finally, learning that the inventor of the mouse advocated for keyboard shortcuts tickles me to no end.
One last thing: If you'd like to read the blog post that started it all, you'll find it here.