command key

The Command key

The Command key, known as the open-Apple key in documentation previous to the Apple Macintosh family of computers, is a modifier key present on Apple Keyboards. An "extended" Macintosh keyboard—the most common type—has two command keys, one on each side of the space bar. Some compact keyboards have one only on the left.

History

Apple's very first computers (up to the 1979 Apple II Plus) did not have any such keys yet. The first model on which it appeared was the 1980 Apple III, where there are two Apple keys, both to the left of the space bar on the lowest row of the keyboard. Two other early Apple computers, the 1982 Apple IIe and the 1984 Apple IIc, also had two such keys, one to the left and one to the right of the space bar; in these models, they mapped to the two different fire buttons of an attached joystick. In all these cases, the left Apple key had an outlined "open" Apple logo, and the one on the right had an opaque "closed" Apple logo. The Apple Lisa had only the closed Apple logo. When the Macintosh was introduced in 1984, the keyboard had a single command key with a symbol reminiscent of a four leaf clover (⌘, U+2318), because Steve Jobs said that showing the Apple logo throughout the menus as a keyboard shortcut was "taking [it] in vain."^[1]

Thus, the ⌘ appears in the Macintosh menus as the primary modifier key symbol.

In 1986, the Apple IIGS was introduced. Like the newer Macintosh computers to come, such as the Macintosh SE, it used the new Apple Desktop Bus for its keyboard and mouse. However, it was still an Apple II. Apple changed the keys on the IIGS's keyboard to Command and Option, as on Mac keyboards, but added an open-Apple to the Command key, for consistency with applications for previous Apple II generations. (The Option key did not have a closed-Apple, probably because Apple II applications used the closed-Apple key much more rarely than the open-Apple key; thus there was less need to keep it around.) Because any ADB keyboard could be used with the IIGS, all of Apple's ADB keyboards—even those intended for the Mac—also required the open-Apple, and it stuck for more than twenty years even when the Apple II series was long out of production. The Apple symbol was removed in the keyboard's 2007 redesign, making room for the key's name to appear. In the US, the keyboard now uses the word "Command"; in Europe, the word used now is "cmd" printed on the key. The removal of the symbol triggered a small storm of online protests by Apple aficionados who felt that a unique design feature of the Macintosh was being dropped without a compelling need.

Function

The Command key has a single purpose: allowing the user to enter keyboard shortcut commands to GUI applications. The Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines have always recommended that developers use the Command key (and not the Control or Option keys) for this purpose. A small set of shortcuts (such as cut and paste, open and save) are standard across all applications, and many other shortcuts are standardized (Find, Show Fonts). If an application needs more shortcuts than can be obtained with the twenty-six letters of the Latin alphabet, double modifiers such as Command+Option are used.

One advantage of this scheme, as contrasted with the Microsoft Windows mixed use of the Control and Alt keys, is that the Control key is reserved entirely for its original purpose: entering control characters in terminal applications. (Indeed, the very first Macintosh lacked a Control key; it was soon added to allow compatible terminal software.)

The Macintosh keyboard's other unusual modifier key, the Option key, serves as a modifier both for entering keyboard shortcuts and for typing text—it is used to enter foreign characters, typographical symbols, and other nonstandard characters.

The ⌘'s origin

Main article: ⌘

Swedish road sign No. 1.9.2.30

A Bowen knot

The "⌘" symbol, sometimes referred to as the Saint Hannes cross, is a symbol commonly found in modern Scandinavia as a cultural marker. The origins of the the symbol in Scandinavia date back to pre-Christian times

The symbol is commonly given nicknames such as '"cloverleaf", "splat", "splodge", "butterfly", "squiggle", "beanie", "flower", "cauliflower", "propeller" or "shamrock." Some believe the symbol to be named the "infinite loop", which is also the address for Apple world headquarters: 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014.

The ⌘ came into the Macintosh project at a late stage. The development team originally went for their old Apple key, but Steve Jobs found it frustrating when "apples" filled up the Mac's menus next to the key commands.^{[citation needed]} Since Jobs felt that this was an over-use of the company logo, he opted for a different key symbol. With only a few days left before deadline, the team's bitmap artist Susan Kare started researching for the Apple logo's successor. She was browsing through a symbol dictionary when she came across the cloverleaf-like symbol, used in Sweden for "attractions on a campground". When she showed it to the rest of the team, everyone liked it, and so it became the symbol of the 1984 Macintosh command key.^[2]

On other keyboards

When a non-Apple designed keyboard is present in the Mac OS X environment the operating system tries to map a similar key to the Command key function. On a keyboard designed for MS Windows, the Windows logo key is mapped to act as the Command key.^[3] On a Sun Microsystems designed keyboard the meta key (◆) maps to the Command key function.

References

External links

• Jargon File entry on feature key
• Andy Hertzfeld's story at Folklore.org
• Susan Kare's interview regarding the symbol
• St. Hans' Cross entry at Symbols.com Online Symbol Encyclopedia
• Sight Worth Seeing entry at Symbols.com

Donate to Wikimedia