Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
| Domain | Definition |
Computing | 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 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 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. 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. Source: Jargon File. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Crosswords: SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD |
| Specialty definitions using "SPACE-CADET KEYBOARD": cokebottle ♦ hexit ♦ meta bit ♦ quadruple bucky. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 50 41 43 45 2D 43 41 44 45 54 4B 45 59 42 4F 41 52 44 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01010000 01000001 01000011 01000101 00101101 01000011 01000001 01000100 01000101 01010100 00100000 01001011 01000101 01011001 01000010 01001111 01000001 01010010 01000100 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S P A C E - C A D E T   K E Y B O A R D |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 0050 0041 0043 0045 002D 0043 0041 0044 0045 0054 004B 0045 0059 0042 004F 0041 0052 0044 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)535035373915373538395424539593649355238 |
| 1. Crosswords 2. Orthography 3. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
