Steve Jobs and Bill Atkinson (right) worked closely to help bring the Macintosh to life. Image credit – Apple
The engineer behind much of the Mac’s early graphical user interfaces, QuickDraw, MacPaint, Hypercard and much more, William D. “Bill” Atkinson, died on June 5 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
His family posting the news on a FaceBook post, saying that he passed away at home in Portola Valley, surrounded by family. Atkinson is survived by his wife, two daughters, stepson, stepdaughter, two brothers, four sisters, and his dog, Poppy, according to a message the family posted on FaceBook.
Atkinson, who built a post-Apple career as a noted nature photographer, worked at Apple from 1978 to 1990. Among his lasting contributions to Apple’s computers were the invention of the menubar, the selection lasso, the “marching ants” item selection animation, and the discovery of a midpoint circle algorithm that enabled the rapid drawing of circles on-screen.
He was Apple Employee No. 51, recruited by Steve Jobs. Atkinson was one of the 30 team members to develop the first Macintosh, but also was principle designer of the Lisa’s graphical user interface (GUI), a novelty in computers at the time.
He was fascinated by the concept of dithering, by which computers using dots could create nearly photographic images similar to the way newspapers printed photos. He is also credited (alongside Jobs) for the invention of RoundRects, the rounded rectangles still used in Apple’s system messages, application windows, and other graphical elements on Apple products.
Hypercard was Atkinson’s main claim to fame. He built the a hypermedia approach to building applications that he once described as a “software erector set.” The Hypercard technology debuted in 1987, and greatly opened up Macintosh software development.
Career post-Apple
Atkinson left Apple in 1990 to join General Magic along with Andy Hertzfeld and investor Marc Porat. He later joined an early “computer intelligence” company called Numenta in 2007, and noted the looming importance of artificial intelligence.
Atkinson (center) and the early Macintosh team. Image credit: The Steve Jobs Archive
Throughout the 2000s, Atkinson also pursued a passion for nature photography. His books and prints of his work are still sold through a website that bears his name, and he received much acclaim for his work in that field.
Atkinson is also fondly recalled on his colleague Hertzfeld’s popular website, folklore.org. He wrote the story of his joining Apple and working with other Apple luminaries such as designer Susan Kare, Jef Raskin, and Jobs in an entry on the site from 1979.
In the death announcement, his family said Atkinson was “a remarkable person, and the world will be forever different because he lived in it. He was fascinated by consciousness, and as he has passed on to a different level of consciousness, we wish him a journey as meaningful as the one it has been to have him in our lives.”
