| slovo | definícia |
space-cadet keyboard
(foldoc) | space-cadet keyboard
A now-legendary device used on MIT
Lisp machines, which inspired several still-current jargon
terms and influenced the design of Emacs. It was equipped
with no fewer than *seven* shift keys: four keys for {bucky
bits} ("control", "meta", "hyper", and "super") and three like
regular shift keys, called "shift", "top", and "front". Many
keys had three symbols on them: a letter and a symbol on the
top, and a Greek letter on the front. For example, the "L"
key had an "L" and a two-way arrow on the top, and the Greek
letter lambda on the front. By pressing this key with the
right hand while playing an appropriate "chord" with the left
hand on the shift keys, you could get the following results:
L lowercase l
shift-L uppercase L
front-L lowercase lambda
front-shift-L uppercase lambda
top-L two-way arrow
(front and shift are ignored) And of course each of these
might also be typed with any combination of the control, meta,
hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard, you could type over
8000 different characters! This allowed the user to type very
complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands of
single-character commands at his disposal. Many hackers were
actually willing to memorise the command meanings of that many
characters if it reduced typing time (this attitude obviously
shaped the interface of Emacs). Other hackers, however,
thought that many bucky bits was overkill, and objected that
such a keyboard can require three or four hands to operate.
See cokebottle, double bucky, meta bit, {quadruple
bucky}.
Note: early versions of this entry incorrectly identified the
space-cadet keyboard with the "Knight keyboard". Though both
were designed by Tom Knight, the latter term was properly
applied only to a keyboard used for ITS on the PDP-10 and
modelled on the Stanford keyboard (as described under {bucky
bits}). The true space-cadet keyboard evolved from the Knight
keyboard.
[Jargon File]
(1994-12-05)
|
space-cadet keyboard
(jargon) | space-cadet keyboard
n.
A now-legendary device used on MIT LISP machines, which inspired several
still-current jargon terms and influenced the design of EMACS. It was
equipped with no fewer than seven shift keys: four keys for bucky bits
(‘control’, ‘meta’, ‘hyper’, and ‘super’) and three regular shift keys,
called ‘shift’, ‘top’, and ‘front’. Many keys had three symbols on them: a
letter and a symbol on the top, and a Greek letter on the front. For
example, the ‘L’ key had an ‘L’ and a two-way arrow on the top, and the
Greek letter lambda on the front. By pressing this key with the right hand
while playing an appropriate ‘chord’ with the left hand on the shift keys,
you could get the following results:
┌─────────────┬───────────────────────────────┐
│L │lowercase l │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│shift-L │uppercase L │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│front-L │λ │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│front-shift-L│Λ │
├─────────────┼───────────────────────────────┤
│top-L │⇔ (front and shift are ignored)│
└─────────────┴───────────────────────────────┘
And of course each of these might also be typed with any combination of the
control, meta, hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard, you could type over
8000 different characters! This allowed the user to type very complicated
mathematical text, and also to have thousands of single-character commands
at his disposal. The keyboard of the Symbolics Lisp machine was a
simplified version, lacking Top and Front keys, that could only send about
2000 characters.
Many hackers were actually willing to memorize the command meanings of that
many characters if it reduced typing time (this attitude obviously shaped
the interface of EMACS). Other hackers, however, thought having that many
bucky bits was overkill, and objected that such a keyboard can require
three or four hands to operate. See bucky bits, cokebottle, {double
bucky}, meta bit, quadruple bucky.
[symbolics-]
Simplified Symbolics version of the space-cadet keyboard
(Some relatively bad photographs of the earlier, more elaborate version are
available on the Web.).
Note: early versions of this entry incorrectly identified the space-cadet
keyboard with the Knight keyboard. Though both were designed by Tom Knight,
the latter term was properly applied only to a keyboard used for ITS on the
PDP-10 and modeled on the Stanford keyboard (as described under {bucky bits
}). The true space-cadet keyboard evolved from the first Knight keyboard.
[73-05-19]
An early space-cadet keyboard
|
| |