Re: A funny think happened...
Re: A funny think happened...
- Subject: Re: A funny think happened...
- From: Walter Ian Kaye <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 09:43:48 -0700
At 01:27a -0700 05/26/2004, Paul Berkowitz didst inscribe upon an
electronic papyrus:
On 5/26/04 12:58 AM, "Michelle Steiner" <email@hidden> wrote:
> On May 25, 2004, at 7:31 PM, Walter Ian Kaye wrote:
>
>> Nit: Macs do not have "alt" keys; PCs do. Macs have "option" keys.
>> Period.
>
> The key is labeled both alt and option on my keyboard (stock keyboard
> that came with the iMac).
But they're not the same font size. Option is, like, 10pt; Alt is, like, 8pt.
If the word "Simian" were stamped on the corner of your forehead in
teeny tiny letters, would that make you an ape?
I've been told by some Europeans that (some?) Apple keyboards from recent
years have only "alt", not "option".
In words, perhaps. But that symbol which looks like this:
%%%%%%% %%%%
%% %%%
%%
%%
%%%%%%%%%
*that* is the "Option" symbol, just as the symbol which looks like this:
%%%% %%%%
%% %% %%
%% %% %%
%%%%%%%%%%
%% %% %%
%% %% %%
%%%% %%%%
is the "Command" symbol.
Those are the symbols you see in the pulldown menus, and those are their names.
You do not see little "open-apple" symbols in the menus.
It has been known for a long time that International keyboards do not
always have the word "Option" on the Option key, but rather just the
*symbol*; this is more economical for localization purposes. The
symbol _still_ means Option.
Apple has *never* called it the Alt key. The only reason you see
"Alt" (in miniature letters) at all, is for the benefit of VirtualPC
users, so they won't have to buy those little stickers to gum up
their keyboards. Although some early PC emulation software used the
Command key for mapping Alt (or was it FoxPro?)...
And the way Alt is used on PCs is very different from the way Option
is used on Macs, so calling it Alt will likely create greater
confusion (a former PC user might try typing Option+0151 to get an
em-dash and fail miserably). We don't want that now, do we?
-boo
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