# Bill Atkinson, creator of HyperCard and MacPaint, dies

**URL:** <https://www.twit.community/t/bill-atkinson-creator-of-hypercard-and-macpaint-dies/18570>\
**Category:** MacOS\
**Created:** [June 8, 2025, 9:10am UTC](https://www.twit.community/t/bill-atkinson-creator-of-hypercard-and-macpaint-dies/18570 "2025-06-08T09:10:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![whern](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/www.twit.community/whern/32/14205_2.png) [@whern](https://www.twit.community/u/whern)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 9:10am UTC](https://www.twit.community/t/bill-atkinson-creator-of-hypercard-and-macpaint-dies/18570/1 "2025-06-08T09:10:28Z")

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Sad news that Bill Atkinson, the legendary designer/programmer of both MacPaint and HyperCard, has died at the age of 74 from pancreatic cancer. The New York Times has a good obituary: [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/technology/bill-atkinson-dead.html?unlocked\_article\_code=1.NU8.Ywss.GiBwWKBSel9x&smid=url-share](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/07/technology/bill-atkinson-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NU8.Ywss.GiBwWKBSel9x&smid=url-share)

Also worth perusing is the [Folklore.org: The Original Macintosh](https://www.folklore.org/0-index.html) website which has a number of good stories which involve Bill. I suggest starting with Bill’s own reflections of working for Apple, written on the fortieth anniversary of his joining the company - [Folklore.org: Joining Apple Computer](https://www.folklore.org/Joining_Apple_Computer.html?sort=date) - and then Andy Hertzfeld’s recollection of when Apple management asked programmers to estimate on a weekly basis how many lines of code that they had written - [Folklore.org: -2000 Lines Of Code](https://www.folklore.org/Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.html)

Finally, Bill was interviewed a couple of times by Leo on Triangulation. They’re well worth a watch!

- [Bill Atkinson](https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/244)
- [Bill Atkinson Part 1](https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/361)
- [Bill Atkinson Part 2](https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation/episodes/362)

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**Author:** ![AaronK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@AaronK](https://www.twit.community/u/AaronK)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://www.twit.community/t/bill-atkinson-creator-of-hypercard-and-macpaint-dies/18570/2 "2025-06-08T15:45:07Z")

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I read about this yesterday. I’m expecting Leo to say something on today’s TWiT.

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**Author:** ![AaronK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@AaronK](https://www.twit.community/u/AaronK)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://www.twit.community/t/bill-atkinson-creator-of-hypercard-and-macpaint-dies/18570/3 "2025-06-08T22:28:45Z")

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And as expected, it was the lead off item.