Co-inventor of computer mouse William English dies
English was one of the only people who truly grasped the ideas and had the talent to bring them to fruition
The co-inventor of computer mouse and one of the modern computer interface, William English has passed away.
William " Bill" English, 91, died on July 26th, died from respiratoyr failure, reports Engadget.
Alongside Douglas Englebart at the Stanford Research Institute, English helped develop the first computer mouse and put together a 1968 "Mother of All Demos" that outlined many concepts that would come to PCs over the decades, such as graphical user interfaces, online text editing, video calls and hypertext links.
While Englebart was considered the visionary, English was one of the only people who truly grasped the ideas and had the talent to bring them to fruition. He built the mouse after Englebart drew a sketch of it, for example. While Englebart was demonstrating the concepts at that 1968 event, English was orchestrating things behind the scenes.
It's not hard to see English's legacy. While touchscreens are increasingly common, many of the other features he and Englebart foresaw would be refined at places like Xerox PARC and find their way into the mainstream, where they still dominate today. In that sense, English could make his presence felt for decades to come.
