Editing Bill Atkinson

{{short description|American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   = 
| name               = Bill Atkinson
| honorific_suffix   = 
| image              = Bill Atkinson at 25 years of HyperCard event.jpeg
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| native_name        = 
| height             = 
| birth_date         = {{Birth date and age|1951|3|17}}
| birth_place        = 
| nationality        = American
| education          = [[University of California, San Diego]]<br />[[University of Washington]]
| occupation         = Engineer, inventor, [[Nature photography|nature photographer]]
| known_for          = Part of the [[Apple Lisa]] and [[Macintosh 128K]] development teams; conceived, designed, implemented [[HyperCard]], the first popular [[hypermedia]] system; his 2004 book, ''Within the Stone''
| title              = 
| website            = {{URL|billatkinson.com}}
}}

'''William D. Atkinson'''<ref name="regionspatent" /> (born March 17, 1951) is an American [[computer engineer]], [[computer programmer]] and photographer.  Atkinson worked at [[Apple Inc.|Apple Computer]] from 1978 to 1990.
Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh [[QuickDraw]] and Lisa LisaGraf
(Atkinson independently discovered the [[midpoint circle algorithm]] for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers),<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt |title=Steve Jobs |first=Walter |last=Isaacson |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2011 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref> [[Marching ants]], the [[double-click]], [[Menu bar]], the [[Lasso tool|selection lasso]], [[MacPaint]] ([[MacPaint#FatBits|FatBits]]), [[HyperCard]],  [[Atkinson dithering]], and the app PhotoCard.

== Education==
He received his undergraduate degree from the [[University of California, San Diego]], where Apple Macintosh developer [[Jef Raskin]] was one of his professors. Atkinson continued his studies as a graduate student in neurochemistry at the [[University of Washington]].

== Apple ==
Raskin invited Atkinson to visit him at [[Apple Inc.|Apple Computer]]; [[Steve Jobs]] persuaded him to join the company immediately as employee No. 51, and Atkinson never finished his PhD.<ref name="Isaacson2014" /><ref name="Tri244">{{Triangulation|244|Bill Atkinson}}</ref> Atkinson was the principal designer and developer of the [[graphical user interface]] (GUI) of the [[Apple Lisa]] and, later, one of the first thirty members of the original Apple [[Macintosh 128K|Macintosh]] development team,<ref name="lemmons198402" /> and was the creator of the [[MacPaint]] application. He also designed and implemented [[QuickDraw]], the fundamental toolbox that the Lisa and Macintosh used for graphics. QuickDraw's performance was essential for the success of the Macintosh GUI. He also was one of the main designers of the Lisa and Macintosh [[user interface]]s. Atkinson also conceived, designed and implemented [[HyperCard]], an early and influential [[hypermedia]] system. HyperCard put the power of computer programming and database design into the hands of non[[programmer]]s. In 1994, Atkinson received the [[EFF Pioneer Award]] for his contributions.

== Career after Apple==
Around 1990, [[General Magic]]'s founding, with Bill Atkinson as one of the three cofounders, met the following press in ''[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]]'' magazine:
<blockquote>The obstacles to General Magic's success may appear daunting, but General Magic is not your typical start-up company. Its partners include some of the biggest players in the worlds of computing, communications, and consumer electronics, and it's loaded with top-notch engineers who have been given a clean slate to reinvent traditional approaches to ubiquitous worldwide communications.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.byte.com/art/9402/sec3/art1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970713005548/http://www.byte.com/art/9402/sec3/art1.htm |archive-date=July 13, 1997 |title=Just Like Magic? |work=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] |first1=Tom R. |last1=Halfhill |first2=Andy |last2=Reinhardt |date=February 1994}}</ref></blockquote>

In 2007, Atkinson began working as an outside developer with Numenta, a startup working on computer intelligence. On his work there Atkinson said, "what Numenta is doing is more fundamentally important to society than the personal computer and the rise of the Internet."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/02/01/8398989/ |title=Jeff Hawkins and the Brain |work=Business 2.0 |publisher=CNN |first=Erick |last=Schonfeld |date=March 6, 2007 |access-date=16 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070625063943/https://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/02/01/8398989/index.htm |archive-date=June 25, 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Photography==
Currently, Atkinson works as a nature photographer, focusing on close-up photographs of stones that have been cut and polished. His 2004 book ''Within the Stone'' features a collection of his close-up photographs. The detailed images he creates are made possible by the accuracy and creative control of the digital printing process that he helped create.

== In popular culture ==
Actor [[Nelson Franklin]] portrayed him in the 2013 film ''[[Jobs (film)|Jobs]]''.

== References ==
<references>

<ref name="Isaacson2014">{{cite book |isbn=978-1476708690 |author=Walter Isaacson |title=The Innovators|date=October 7, 2014 |publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>
<ref name="lemmons198402">{{cite interview |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1984-02/1984_02_BYTE_09-02_Benchmarks#page/n59/mode/2up |title=An Interview: The Macintosh Design Team |work=BYTE |date=February 1984 |access-date=October 22, 2013 |last=Lemmons |first=Phil |pages=58 |volume=9|issue=2}}</ref>
<ref name="regionspatent">{{cite patent |country=US| invent1=William D. Atkinson| number=4622545A| title=Method and apparatus for image compression and manipulation| status=patent| gdate=1986-11-11| fdate=1982-09-30| assign1=Apple Computer, Inc.| url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US4622545A/en}}</ref>

</references>

==External links==
* {{Official website|www.billatkinson.com}}

{{Apple celeb}}
{{Original Macintosh Design Team}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atkinson, Bill}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:American photographers]]
[[Category:Apple Inc. employees]]
[[Category:Apple Fellows]]
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:University of California, San Diego alumni]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:University of Washington alumni]]
[[Category:Macintosh operating systems people]]
[[Category:Scientists from the San Francisco Bay Area]]