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> They add a key to the keyboard, an Alt or Meta equivalent called "Command". OK, awesome. Apple added three keys on the original Mac keyboard. The Command ke
by SeanLuke 6y ago
> They add a key to the keyboard, an Alt or Meta equivalent called "Command". OK, awesome.
Apple added three keys on the original Mac keyboard. The Command key, the Option key (which is used, more or less, as a second Shift key) and the Enter key (not to be confused with Return). The Enter key eventually was deprecated and made equivalent to keypad-Enter. It's now mapped to Shift-Return on Macs. The Option key, not the Command key, is now mapped on modern keyboards to Alt. The Command key is its own wonderful beast. Both ESC and Control were missing; both were added back later.
- quesera 6y agoThis is true, and it's an evolution from the Apple II (//, ][, etc) days which had two Apple keys (Open Apple and Closed Apple), one on each side of the space bar. I recall reading somewhere that Jobs hated Open Apple and Closed Apple. But thank goodness for ⌘ !
- SeanLuke 6y agoActually, the Mac's keys are derived from the Lisa, whose release well predates the Apple IIe (the first II with the apple keys). Except for the numeric keypad, the Lisa keyboard differed from the Mac only in that the Lisa used an Apple symbol whereas the Mac used ⌘.
- quesera 6y agoI remembered that the Mac Plus (1986) had ⌘, and that the //e and //c both had Open/Closed Apple keys, but wasn't sure about the transition through Lisa and the original Mac. Wikipedia has both the //e and the Lisa with a release date of January 1983. But of course the Lisa project goes way back!
- SeanLuke 6y agoHmmm, I seem to recall the //e being released much later in 1983. But yeah, maybe they were co-released.
- fisherjeff 6y agoAmazing how little it takes to completely transport a person back in time. Hadn’t thought about “Open Apple” in a long time – thanks for that!
- pimlottc 6y agoBefore there was “Ctrl - Alt - Delete”, there was “Ctrl - Open Apple - Reset”. Those were the days...