Its utility? Originally it was used to block the use of the cursor from appearing when printing. Scroll is not an atavistic key since there are programs like Excel that use it today.
Where is the alt key on mac keyboard Pc#
If the PC blocked it with that key, a request was made by the system that re-established the system, with the appearance of more complex operating systems, this utility disappeared.Īs for the Lock key. The PetSis function of the same key was CTRL + ALT + DEL at the time. The Print Screen key was born from the fact that the first PCs had graphic cards with printer output and when we pressed that key, what was seen on the screen was immediately output by the printer. Print Screen, Scroll Lock and Interįurther to the right on the standard keyboard we have the Print Screen / Pet Sys, Scroll and Inter keys, whose usefulness has been lost in the dawn of PC time.
Although if we think about it, it is that immobility that makes these keys continue to be included by a minority that uses them at specific times and why no one has sat down or will sit down to create a new convention about the function keys. The natural evolution of these atavistic keys is not the suppression of them, but a reduction to a few, the problem is that this would mean that many would have to learn their use again. Its rival Microsoft Word from the first version was thought for the mouse and in the use of drop-down menus. Thus, to carry out certain actions with said word processor, the mouse was not used, but the function keys. We can also talk about the F3 key that is used to search for text in some applications and nothing in others, F4 is used in conjunction with ALT to close a window, F5 to refresh a web, etc.įunction keys were widely used in the 80s in PC applications where the mouse was not a standard peripheral to use. For example the F2 key with a selected folder or file allows us to change the name, but in other cases it can be totally useless and do nothing.
The first keys that we do not usually use are the function keys, which go from F1 to F12, in general the function of the different keys is not fixed and depends on the context in which we find ourselves. Who does not remember those motherboards that combined PS / 2, parallel and RS-232 ports with USB or those computers with a multitude of ISAs and PCIs? Function keys Many of the compact keyboards do not include most of these keys because they are totally useless when not being used, but most include them due to the existing craze in the PC of leaving old technologies for compatibility. These keys are what we call atavistic keys or disused keys, they were included in PCs in their beginnings and continue to this day, which leads many of us to the question: what is the reason why they are still there? Most keyboard commands are made using combinations using the CTRL and ALT keys, and most atavistic keys are hardly used or their function is already duplicated with keyboard combinations.