From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Mar 26 00:21:24 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id AAA25163 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 26 Mar 1997 00:21:24 -0800 (PST) Received: from sax.sax.de (sax.sax.de [193.175.26.33]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id AAA25158 for ; Wed, 26 Mar 1997 00:21:17 -0800 (PST) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by sax.sax.de (8.6.12/8.6.12-s1) with UUCP id JAA22693 for freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG; Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:21:15 +0100 Received: (from j@localhost) by uriah.heep.sax.de (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA10036; Wed, 26 Mar 1997 09:01:42 +0100 (MET) Message-ID: <19970326090141.LZ12931@uriah.heep.sax.de> 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 References: <19970326012336.IK14554@uriah.heep.sax.de> <199703260417.VAA26928@phaeton.artisoft.com> X-Mailer: Mutt 0.60_p2-3,5,8-9 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Phone: +49-351-2012 669 X-PGP-Fingerprint: DC 47 E6 E4 FF A6 E9 8F 93 21 E0 7D F9 12 D6 4E Reply-To: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de (Joerg Wunsch) In-Reply-To: <199703260417.VAA26928@phaeton.artisoft.com>; from Terry Lambert on Mar 25, 1997 21:17:06 -0700 Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk 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. ;-)