The Meta key is a
modifier key on certain
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
. It first appeared on the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
(SAIL) keyboard in 1970.
History
The Meta key first appeared on the
Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab
Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...
(SAIL) keyboard in 1970
and successors such as the
Knight keyboard,
space-cadet keyboard,
MIT Lisp machine,
Symbolics keyboards, and on
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...
keyboards (where it is marked with a black diamond "◆").
Use
Generally, the Meta key worked similar to
Macintosh's
Command key, in that when held down it modified letters and symbols into immediate commands (shortcuts). On these keyboards the
Control key was placed closest to the
space bar, then the Meta key outside Control. The space-cadet keyboard added the
Super key outside Meta, and the
Hyper key outside that. All these keys produced shortcuts (2
4 of them for every letter), but the Control ones were easiest to type and most popular, and the Meta ones second-easiest and thus second most popular. However, on most modern keyboards, the Control key is ''farthest'' from the space bar, reversing the convenience of shortcuts.
On keyboards that lack a physical Meta key, its functionality may be invoked by other keys such as the
Windows key or Macintosh's
Option key.
However, software often provides another workaround, such as using the
Alt key (which does not exist on the
Knight keyboard), or using the
Esc key as a prefix (e.g., in
Emacs
Emacs , originally named EMACS (an acronym for "Editor MACroS"), is a family of text editors that are characterized by their extensibility. The manual for the most widely used variant, GNU Emacs, describes it as "the extensible, customizable, s ...
). Because of these workarounds, the need for Meta – despite being the most-used additional
modifier key – was less than for other modifier keys. It is more common today to use the Windows key to emulate the
Super key.
Gallery
File:Space-cadet.jpg, Space-cadet keyboard
File:Symbolics-keyboard.jpg, Symbolics keyboard
See also
*
Modifier key
References
Computer keys
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