Computer Mouse Inventor Douglas Engelbart Dies

I’m sure few would disagree that of all the tools we use in our computing, one of the most important is the computer mouse. Don’t use a mouse? The input device you use, touchpad or touchscreen, stems from the initial creation of the mouse, devised by Douglas Engelbart in 1967.

Unfortunately, Douglas passed on Wednesday at the age of 88. He leaves behind a rich history, and many contributions to our modern computing. At the CIS 471 blog by Larry Press, we can get a taste of those:

“If you use a mouse, hyperlinks, video conferencing, WYSIWYG word processor, multi-window user interface, shared documents, shared database, documents with images & text, keyword search, instant messaging, synchronous collaboration, asynchronous collaboration — thank Doug Engelbart.“

Incredible to say the very least. RIP, Douglas, and thanks so much for all of your contributions to our computing.