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Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 2: The Mac side

163 points · 89 comments · zdw

  1. amelius · · focus · HN ↗
    No amount of drooling over Apple keyboards will make me forget that Apple's designers didn't add keys for basic functions such as Copy and Paste, Undo and Redo.
    1. neilv · · focus · HN ↗
      And there was already precedent:

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;deskauthority.saberkeebs.com&#x2F;wiki.themk.org&#x2F;index.php&#x2F;Fun_cluster.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;deskauthority.saberkeebs.com&#x2F;wiki.themk.org&#x2F;index.ph...

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;deskthority.net&#x2F;download&#x2F;file.php?id=59173" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;deskthority.net&#x2F;download&#x2F;file.php?id=59173

      Early Mac design was excellent overall, but decided not to include these keys (maybe they were leaning towards Smalltalk-like context menus?), and then seemed to go into more cryptic and power-user in-the-know keyboard direction (like with the 3-icon key including special support for flipping burgers):

      <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unsung.aresluna.org&#x2F;_media&#x2F;key-symbols-we-lost-to-time-pt-2-the-mac-side&#x2F;6.1600w.avif" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unsung.aresluna.org&#x2F;_media&#x2F;key-symbols-we-lost-to-ti...

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