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Date:      Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:01:41 +0100
From:      j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
To:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Backspace = ^H
Message-ID:  <19970326090141.LZ12931@uriah.heep.sax.de>
In-Reply-To: <199703260417.VAA26928@phaeton.artisoft.com>; from Terry Lambert on Mar 25, 1997 21:17:06 -0700
References:  <19970326012336.IK14554@uriah.heep.sax.de> <199703260417.VAA26928@phaeton.artisoft.com>

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As Terry Lambert wrote:

> What's German for "Backspace"?  Are you saying thre are no German
> keyboards with "Backspace" implied for the key?

IMHO none of the non-English keyboards has any word on that keycap,
they all have <--.  The German word for "Backspace" is "Backspace",
at least i don't know of another.  And mind you, they have translated
everything else on these keyboards, including labelling the control
keys "Strg", for "Steuerung".  Needless to say, people call it the
``String key'' now since they make an English meaning out of this
stupid abbreviation. :-(

I've just verified the DEC VT320 manual i've got here, and all their
keycaps (all languages) have this
	 ___
	< x |
	 ~~~

symbol on it.  It's neutral to whether you spell it as backspace or
delete, it's just what it is meant to be: the rubout key.  So it
rather looks like a mistake that US-ASCII PC keyboards hardwire the
meaning of this key.  Nobody else seems to do it...

But we've been there before, and decided that it's a religious issue,
and the only `solution' can be to leave it as it is.  Thus, this is my
last posting in this matter.

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)



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