3 ms·

While the first example of car sizes and Roman chariots is likely incorrect (as the article itself points out, and it's also suspiciously familiar to the debunk

While the first example of car sizes and Roman chariots is likely incorrect (as the article itself points out, and it's also suspiciously familiar to the debunked railroad gauge/Roman chariot story[0]), I'm always fascinated by stories like this. It underlies the organic nature by which many of our systems have grown. The same kind of "cruft" you see in systems and designs that have been around for a long time (Why is it the "Referer" header in HTTP? Why do we still call it Ajax/XHR when XML is rarely used?) is seen in many aspects of life. Etymology is choke full of them. Consider the word, "consider" - its roots may have meant something like "consult the stars" at one point in time. (I think I first read about this in Sagan's Cosmos) 0. http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp http://www.snopes.com/history/american/gauge.asp 1. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=consider http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=consider

a_bonobo 10y ago
Or the reason for the JHKL vim arrow keys - I've read quite often how ergonomic that is, but it's just historical: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys... (then again, maybe the original keyboard maker put them there for ergonomic reasons)
- jandrese 10y ago
  I always thought it was because on slow modem connections the traditional arrow keys could become unreliable. Vim supports use of the arrow keys, but back in the day when I tried to use them over a modem occasionally the sequence would be interpreted as escape then garbage, breaking me out of editing mode and sending some unsuppported command to the vim. That's why I learned to use hjkl instead. Those keys are also reliably placed on Qwerty keyboards, whereas any other keys may or may not remain in a sensible location, especially back in the old days before keyboard layouts settled down.
  - _acme 10y ago
    There were no "traditional arrow keys" on the terminal that vi was developed on, but arrows were printed on the hjkl keys; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys.
ScottBurson 10y ago
Since we're being pedantic: the phrase is "chock full". [0] [0] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chock http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chock

a_bonobo 10y ago

Or the reason for the JHKL vim arrow keys - I've read quite often how ergonomic that is, but it's just historical: http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys/ http://www.catonmat.net/blog/why-vim-uses-hjkl-as-arrow-keys... (then again, maybe the original keyboard maker put them there for ergonomic reasons)

jandrese 10y ago
I always thought it was because on slow modem connections the traditional arrow keys could become unreliable. Vim supports use of the arrow keys, but back in the day when I tried to use them over a modem occasionally the sequence would be interpreted as escape then garbage, breaking me out of editing mode and sending some unsuppported command to the vim. That's why I learned to use hjkl instead. Those keys are also reliably placed on Qwerty keyboards, whereas any other keys may or may not remain in a sensible location, especially back in the old days before keyboard layouts settled down.
- _acme 10y ago
  There were no "traditional arrow keys" on the terminal that vi was developed on, but arrows were printed on the hjkl keys; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_keys#HJKL_keys.

ScottBurson 10y ago

Since we're being pedantic: the phrase is "chock full". [0] [0] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chock http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chock