…rather than to figure out how to backspace the right amount of times – and possibly lose certainty and momentum.
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I don’t know exactly when this idea originated. I see it clearly in the 1983 Lisa, although I think other computers before had the same concept – except with a different label.pic.twitter.com/RR1yGIULJG
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For example, the first popular PC spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 treats Esc the same way – it clears the field – and for a while, Esc was much closer to the keypad, too.pic.twitter.com/QthKypxeCK
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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.1 reply 1 retweet 1 likeShow 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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Replying to @mwichary
All I can contribute is that Clear was in the Lisa keymap by July, 1981 https://archive.org/details/Lisa_Hardware_Reference_Manual_1981-07-07_Apple/page/n35 …pic.twitter.com/TDn7CcTA1G
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Replying to @mwichary
Nice find! (A shame again here that the text has been reset instead of preserving the exact original, though.) Interesting that CODE (later Option) got the top-left spot, not a place you would normally find a modifier key. Very weird to see ZXCU for Cut Paste Copy Undo
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Replying to @enf
I probably have the original PDF somewhere, if you want me to grab it – at the time, it felt better to do it this way.
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