From: Xah <xahlee@gmail.com>
To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
Subject: origin of the Meta key
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:15:36 -0700 (PDT) [thread overview]
Message-ID: <6dbf5b52-af69-4517-ae82-6dbed45492b5@s20g2000prd.googlegroups.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: barmar-118D5D.17412223082008@newsgroups.comcast.net
On Aug 23, 2:41 pm, Barry Margolin <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Nope, you have it wrong. Meta came from the SAIL keyboard at Stanford
> AI Lab, developed in 1971. This was more than a decade before Sun was
> founded. Of course, the Sun founders came from Stanford, so they were
> undoubtedly familiar with this keyboard, and the diamond key was
> presumably put there to serve the same function. Similarly with Apple's
> command key.
>
> http://www.stanford.edu/~learnest/sailaway.htm
>
> http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/voy/museum/pictures
> /display/1-6-RAIL-keybd.jpg
Thanks for this informative post!
Quote from the article:
«A fancier display system, installed at SAIL in 1971, put a terminal
using a television monitor on everyone's desk. SAIL was apparently the
first system in the world that put terminals in offices -- before
that, the few computer displays that existed were kept in "display
rooms." This display system also included an advanced keyboard that
introduced the "Meta" key and other features to facilitate touch-
typing. That keyboard design was picked up promptly by MIT and
Carnegie-Mellon University and later by Apple, whose Command key is a
direct descendent of the Meta key on the SAIL keyboard.»
i did a quick google image search but didn't find more photos...
is here more info about this keyboard? or other doc about the origin
of the Meta?
Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/
☄
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-08-24 0:15 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 84+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-07-24 17:36 What does 'run' do in cperl-mode? formido
2008-07-25 3:02 ` formido
2008-07-25 14:55 ` Xah
2008-07-25 16:41 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-07-25 21:55 ` Xah
2008-07-26 0:05 ` Florian Beck
2008-07-26 2:04 ` Xah
2008-07-26 0:33 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
[not found] ` <mailman.15432.1217032437.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-26 1:41 ` Xah
2008-07-28 11:42 ` Nikolaj Schumacher
2008-07-28 11:58 ` Thien-Thi Nguyen
2008-07-28 13:39 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-07-28 15:02 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-28 16:34 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
[not found] ` <mailman.15504.1217262880.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-28 17:42 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-28 22:44 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-07-28 19:57 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-07-28 20:28 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-28 21:31 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-07-28 22:09 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-29 14:33 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-07-29 23:20 ` Xah
[not found] ` <mailman.15488.1217245359.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-28 15:22 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-28 22:14 ` Nikolaj Schumacher
[not found] ` <mailman.15520.1217283300.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-28 22:54 ` Xah Lee
2008-07-29 3:32 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] ` <mailman.15531.1217302334.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 7:25 ` Xah
2008-07-29 7:46 ` Juanma Barranquero
[not found] ` <mailman.15537.1217317612.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 8:41 ` Xah
2008-07-29 12:56 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-07-29 13:34 ` William Case
2008-07-29 9:39 ` Phil Carmody
2008-07-29 12:55 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-07-29 18:19 ` Colin S. Miller
2008-07-30 12:29 ` David Hansen
2008-07-30 13:34 ` Juanma Barranquero
2008-07-29 19:33 ` Eli Zaretskii
2008-07-29 22:25 ` Andreas Eder
2008-07-29 23:35 ` Xah
2008-07-30 8:47 ` Andreas Eder
2008-07-30 9:49 ` Xah
2008-07-30 17:58 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] ` <mailman.15606.1217440713.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-30 18:17 ` David Kastrup
[not found] ` <mailman.15565.1217360044.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 19:45 ` Joost Diepenmaat
2008-07-29 21:16 ` Xah
2008-07-30 3:34 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] ` <mailman.15577.1217388899.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-30 3:55 ` Xah
2008-07-30 18:06 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] ` <mailman.15607.1217441187.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-30 18:37 ` Xah
2008-08-23 21:22 ` David Combs
2008-08-23 21:41 ` Barry Margolin
2008-08-24 0:15 ` Xah [this message]
2008-08-24 3:38 ` origin of the Meta key Barry Margolin
2008-08-26 12:19 ` Allan Gottlieb
2008-07-29 11:13 ` What does 'run' do in cperl-mode? Nikolaj Schumacher
2008-07-29 11:52 ` Alan Mackenzie
[not found] ` <mailman.15542.1217330058.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 12:05 ` Xah
2008-07-29 21:55 ` David Kastrup
[not found] ` <mailman.15545.1217332445.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 12:44 ` Xah
2008-07-29 15:16 ` Nikolaj Schumacher
2008-07-29 18:27 ` Alan Mackenzie
[not found] ` <mailman.15550.1217344626.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 21:32 ` Xah
2008-07-29 23:06 ` Nikolaj Schumacher
[not found] ` <mailman.15574.1217372768.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 23:29 ` Xah
2008-07-31 19:07 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-08-01 3:34 ` Xah
2008-08-01 7:18 ` Eli Zaretskii
[not found] ` <mailman.15688.1217575142.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-08-01 8:00 ` Xah
2008-08-01 8:12 ` Nikolaj Schumacher
2008-08-01 15:17 ` Ted Zlatanov
2008-08-06 22:42 ` Harry Putnam
[not found] ` <mailman.15964.1218062567.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-08-06 23:22 ` Xah
2008-08-07 6:39 ` David Kastrup
2008-08-07 8:24 ` Xah
[not found] ` <mailman.15564.1217356016.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-29 22:50 ` Xah
2008-07-30 15:15 ` Alan Mackenzie
[not found] ` <mailman.15602.1217430872.18990.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2008-07-30 17:32 ` Xah
2008-07-30 17:45 ` Joost Kremers
2008-07-30 18:33 ` Xah
2008-07-30 19:40 ` Bastien
2008-07-30 0:28 ` namekuseijin
2008-07-27 3:05 ` formido
2008-07-27 11:36 ` Lennart Borgman (gmail)
2008-07-27 11:56 ` Thierry Volpiatto
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