Article: 105925 of alt.folklore.computers From: dpeschel@u.washington.edu (D. Peschel) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Why Ctrl-v for Paste?! Date: 7 Jan 1999 10:49:04 GMT Organization: University of Washington, Seattle Lines: 42 Message-ID: <7723f0$is0$1@nntp1.u.washington.edu> References: <77222d$fe3$1@remarQ.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: saul7.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp1.u.washington.edu 915706144 19328 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: dpeschel Path: news1.meer.net!news3.best.com!news1.best.com!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!dpeschel Xref: news1.meer.net alt.folklore.computers:105925 In article <77222d$fe3$1@remarQ.com>, Scott wrote: >The most obvious reason is that Ctrl Z, X, C, V are most convenient for some >of the most common operations: Undo, Cut, Copy and Paste. Simply because >they are close to the control key on most keyboards. Right. And they are the same on the Macintosh -- the standard shortcuts look like this: q w e r t y u i o p quit close open print a s d f g h j k l ; save z x c v b n m , . / undo cut copy paste new cancel The command key (which you use to modify a character to become a shortcut) is to the left of the spacebar. (Many keyboards have one to the right, but I've never trained myself to use it.) The "open" and "save" commands act on files. The "close" and "print" commands deal with the current window/document. The "new" command creates a new window/document. The "undo", "cut", "copy", and "paste" commands deal with the current selection. And "cancel" chooses the "Cancel" button in a dialog box. It also gets rid of the annoying "Please insert the disk: ___" notices that sometimes pop up. Most software now accepts Esc as well. Most programs define other shortcuts. The conventions have changed over the years. When programs can use only one character (instead of two, as in Windows' case) they tend to be creative or even totally opaque. But the system works well enough for common commands that the "core" shortcuts haven't changed since the late 80's. Too bad Windows still has a lot of its CUA keys -- Alt-F4 for close is completely counterintuitive. Shift-Ins (or whatever) for paste is almost as bad, and awkward to use. Luckily, Microsoft knows a good feature when it sees one. :) -- Derek -- Derek