5 ms·

The folks at adafruit probably do know, but it does make sense if you expand the words: "Control, Alter, and Delete"

by jasonjayr 8mo ago

crazygringo 8mo ago
That's more charitable. Alt is still short for Alternate though, not Alter.
- zoky 8mo ago
  I mean, technically it’s short for alter on the way to being short for alternate
- YeGoblynQueenne 8mo ago
  I thought "Alt" in the title is meant in the sense of "stop", as in "halt", but on second thoughts maybe that only works in French (where h is always silent)?
  - viccis 8mo ago
    It's clearly meant to be part of the Ctrl-Alt-Del key sequence that interrupts Windows computers to bring up the task manager.
    - crazygringo 8mo ago
      But doesn't Ctrl+Alt+Del bring up the screen to switch users or sign out? "Task Manager" is one item in the list of options you get, but it's not the main one or anything, in fact it's the last: https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/hzx6btMYEqZJfSAL3WVxXuW3-jw=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/windows-10-ctrl-alt-del-5b475456c9e77c0037e730b3.png https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/hzx6btMYEqZJfSAL3WVxXuW3-jw=/1...
      - NekkoDroid 8mo ago
        Would have made more sense to say Ctrl+Shift+Esc since that just directly brings up the task manager. All in all I would say it is a slightly weird title, but I assume enough people get what they want to say with it.
      - aaronmdjones 8mo ago
        The author may just be showing their age a bit. That's what Ctrl+Alt+Del does on modern versions of Windows, but from Windows 95 to Windows XP (inclusive) it directly launched the Task Manager.
        tosti 8mo ago
        Ctrl+Alt+Del on an IBM PC or a compatible clone reboots the machine no questions asked. There's a dedicated reset button in case that fails. Doing anything other than a reboot started with protected mode MS-Windows 3.1 IIRC (then marketed as "386 enhanced mode").
        aaronmdjones 8mo ago
        Yeah; in Windows 3.1, Ctrl+Alt+Del took you to a blue screen that allowed you to kill an unresponsive task (but didn't display a list of tasks; the Task List was launched with Ctrl+Esc), or told you there was no such task to kill if there wasn't. Before Windows 3.1 it just rebooted the machine as you described. Launching Task Manager was the 95 to XP behaviour, but NT behaved differently -- even Windows NT 4.0 (developed alongside Windows 95) took you to the security screen with Ctrl+Alt+Del (something that would later be ported to Vista), where launching Task Manager was one of its options. These OSes weren't used residentially though, until Windows 2000 attempted to merge their lineages and Windows XP finally cemented the deal.
    - YeGoblynQueenne 8mo ago
      Yes, but I thought they were making a colourful pune or play on words.
lysace 8mo ago
That's bullshit (IMO) and the post author (Phillip Torrone - I believe that's one of the owners of Adafruit) is obviously ignorant in this regard. That said, what he's actually talking about in the post makes a lot of sense. That is the important part.

The folks at adafruit probably do know, but it does make sense if you expand the words: "Control, Alter, and Delete"

crazygringo 8mo ago

That's more charitable. Alt is still short for Alternate though, not Alter.

zoky 8mo ago
I mean, technically it’s short for alter on the way to being short for alternate
YeGoblynQueenne 8mo ago
I thought "Alt" in the title is meant in the sense of "stop", as in "halt", but on second thoughts maybe that only works in French (where h is always silent)?
- viccis 8mo ago
  It's clearly meant to be part of the Ctrl-Alt-Del key sequence that interrupts Windows computers to bring up the task manager.
  - crazygringo 8mo ago
    But doesn't Ctrl+Alt+Del bring up the screen to switch users or sign out? "Task Manager" is one item in the list of options you get, but it's not the main one or anything, in fact it's the last: https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/hzx6btMYEqZJfSAL3WVxXuW3-jw=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/windows-10-ctrl-alt-del-5b475456c9e77c0037e730b3.png https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/hzx6btMYEqZJfSAL3WVxXuW3-jw=/1...
    - NekkoDroid 8mo ago
      Would have made more sense to say Ctrl+Shift+Esc since that just directly brings up the task manager. All in all I would say it is a slightly weird title, but I assume enough people get what they want to say with it.
    - aaronmdjones 8mo ago
      The author may just be showing their age a bit. That's what Ctrl+Alt+Del does on modern versions of Windows, but from Windows 95 to Windows XP (inclusive) it directly launched the Task Manager.
      - tosti 8mo ago
        Ctrl+Alt+Del on an IBM PC or a compatible clone reboots the machine no questions asked. There's a dedicated reset button in case that fails. Doing anything other than a reboot started with protected mode MS-Windows 3.1 IIRC (then marketed as "386 enhanced mode").
        aaronmdjones 8mo ago
        Yeah; in Windows 3.1, Ctrl+Alt+Del took you to a blue screen that allowed you to kill an unresponsive task (but didn't display a list of tasks; the Task List was launched with Ctrl+Esc), or told you there was no such task to kill if there wasn't. Before Windows 3.1 it just rebooted the machine as you described. Launching Task Manager was the 95 to XP behaviour, but NT behaved differently -- even Windows NT 4.0 (developed alongside Windows 95) took you to the security screen with Ctrl+Alt+Del (something that would later be ported to Vista), where launching Task Manager was one of its options. These OSes weren't used residentially though, until Windows 2000 attempted to merge their lineages and Windows XP finally cemented the deal.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 8mo ago
    Yes, but I thought they were making a colourful pune or play on words.

lysace 8mo ago

That's bullshit (IMO) and the post author (Phillip Torrone - I believe that's one of the owners of Adafruit) is obviously ignorant in this regard. That said, what he's actually talking about in the post makes a lot of sense. That is the important part.