I believe Clear/⌧ key on the big Apple keyboard is a leftover from the times of professional uses of keypads. It’s a “deterministic correction key” – upon making a mistake while typing a number, it feels safer and quicker to just start the number from scratch…https://twitter.com/MarijnvdWerf/status/1095329642959888386 …
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(And, many external keypads offered Esc alongside Backspace.)pic.twitter.com/mfDYopqowz
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Today, indeed it feels the Numbers app treats Clear and Backspace and Delete as equivalent. Not sure about Excel. As
@rsms mentioned, Calculator still makes the old-school distinction between Clear and Backspace/Delete.Show this thread -
I know some specific apps like Maestro handled them differently, too: Backspace/Delete meaning “remove object and space it occupies” and Clear meaning “delete but leave space intact.” But this is probably on its way out already, too, given that most keyboards lack that key.
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Clear feels today just a leftover reminder that keyboards used to be Professional Devices For Professionals – the same way not so long ago even MacBook/PowerBook keyboards still distinguished between Return and Enter. But that’s a whole different story. :·)
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(Your job back in the day – and maybe still in some places – might have been to enter thousands of numbers on the keypad *per hour*. Small things like that added up.
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Today, if you ever press Cmd+A to type over a possibly maligned password after your fingers slip and you’re no longer sure, you are perpetuating this old gesture… but using a new shortcut.)
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