Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 1: The PC side

(unsung.aresluna.org)

48 points | by leephillips 4 hours ago ago

15 comments

  • Findecanor 2 hours ago

    Reverse Tab ⇤ is still with us, above the Tab ⇥ symbol. It is at the top to indicate that it is generated while holding Shift.

    Many people have got the misconception that both symbols together is the Tab symbol, though. There is even a symbol consisting of both close together in Unicode: ⭾ and many PC keyboards that similarly have both arrows closer together than on keys with printed symbols generated with and without holding Shift. (Apple has been printing only ⇥ though)

    • leephillips an hour ago

      This article is the first time I’ve heard of the reverse tab. What is it?

      • tpm an hour ago

        Move one tab backwards. So in form fields move one field back, in text editor indent one tab less etc.

        • mock-possum 42 minutes ago

          Aka shift+tab, or shift+ctrl+tab

  • chrishill89 20 minutes ago

    I learned about proofreaders marks when my master’s advisor would print out my draft and mark it up with a pen.

  • CalRobert 2 hours ago

    Insert is gone? I have it here... though I can't remember the last time I used it. I never found much reason to think "I want to overwrite existing text as I type"

    • leephillips 2 hours ago

      My keyboards have always had an INS key but they’ve never done anything and I’ve never bothered to map them to anything. I do sometimes want to overwrite, but that’s always in Vim where I can enter replace mode.

      • CalRobert an hour ago

        I think I used it most in the odd game... I recall it may have activated stealth in Subspace (Continuum)

      • SilasX 31 minutes ago

        Hm I've seen keyboards where INS didn't appear to do anything, but that was because you had to press a different button to activate the set of keys that includes INS, and you might have been looking at a case of that.

  • spijdar an hour ago

    Not really relevant to keyboard symbols, and not PC symbols, and it's not really lost to time, but does anyone know where the Ethernet symbol used on Apple products (and ... Android???) comes from? You know, the <...> symbol.

    It's most prominently seen and probably associated with Apple products, going back to the first Macs with Ethernet (the Quadra 700/900). It's also used, bizarrely IMO, as the Android Ethernet symbol.

    However, I've also seen it on one other type of computer -- Sun/SPARC systems. And on those systems (1990+), it predates the Apple usage on the Quadra (1991+), with at least my IPC having the <...> symbol for Ethernet over the AUI port. (not sure if Apple's NuBus NICs had it or not). Further, it's used on some of my RDI SPARC systems, with a different font.

    Someone had to decide to use this symbol first, and I've always wanted to know who. It's distinct from the "iconography" that everyone else uses for Ethernet, and has survived to this day in its weird little Apple (and Android??) branch.

  • card_zero 2 hours ago

    "Insert, now gone"? I press the INS key, I overwrite text, it's very useful. Though thinking about it I suppose that really turns insert mode off.

    "Key beep" sounds horrific. :D

    • jstanley 2 hours ago

      The Insert key toggles insert mode.

      • em3rgent0rdr 2 hours ago

        Mind blown: we have always by default been in insert mode.

        • bojan 9 minutes ago

          Commodore 64 was by default in overwrite mode.

          When I switched to PC being in insert mode took some getting used to.