Not sure if WPS refers to Word Perfect or MS Works (had .wps files). Either way, I think DOS-based so no segfaults (unix terminology).
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Replying to @JaRail @ChrisKraken
It was a Wang Laboratories WPS machine.
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"Press EXECUTE": dead giveaway.
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Replying to @RrrichardZach @mwichary and
Why don't our keyboards have "Cancel" keys? Did Wang have a patent on it? Or "Escape" chosen just to not conflict with Wang, and it stuck?
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A good question. I can speculate that the IBM PC 5150 keyboard that influenced all of them today has [Esc] because earlier terminals did…
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Replying to @mwichary @RrrichardZach and
…(and earlier home computers influenced by terminals?), and the key sort of inherited its current meaning some time later in the 1980s.
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Replying to @mwichary @RrrichardZach and
Or perhaps it was even added explicitly in 1981 for terminal emulation.
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So ESC was the key for ANSI/ECMA 0x1B and it just morphed into a general "cancel whatever you're doing now" key?
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Yep, I believe so. As full-screen interfaces and later GUIs arrived, it took on this other meaning.
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Replying to @mwichary @RrrichardZach and
(Which is sort of common for keys in general. See: Backspace, Return, Control, Shift, Insert, PrtSc, etc.)
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You actually crystallized a thought in my head that might make for a good passage in the book. Thanks!
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Replying to @mwichary @RrrichardZach and
The IBM 5150 manual has references to ANSI escape sequences, but the DOS portion is already using Esc creatively.pic.twitter.com/VssBOTYPYk
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Replying to @mwichary @RrrichardZach and
Delighted at the IBM manual that says “messed-up.”
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End of conversation
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