Mac, however, did not initially have the Control key. They both existed during the initial development of Mac and Windows OS just like the Command on Mac and Ctrl on Windows. The Option key on Mac, however, is a direct equivalent of the Alt key on Windows. Therefore, the Command key is as old as you can imagine in the existence of modern computers just like the Ctrl key of Windows. This concept was later on adopted by Apple by using the Command ⌘ key and Windows by using the Ctrl key. To summarize, the concept of menu shortcut keys started with Xerox. To be more standardized and make sure other manufacturers would stick with their OS, they had to stick with the Ctrl key instead of demanding a new one that could have been unideal for other manufacturers. Windows, on the other hand, made their OS not only for their own manufactured computers but also for other manufacturers such as IBM, Compaq, etc. It is not, however, sure why they chose Command instead of Control.īut theoretically, the reason for this could have been that when operating menu shortcuts, you are not technically sending control characters such as newlines, backspace, or tabs, but instead, you are sending commands, but this reasoning was proven much later on. Apple later adopted this concept by the time it made the first Mac OS in the 80s. The concept of Control/Command shortcut keys originated in Xerox PARC prototypes during the 70s for graphical user interfaces (GUIs). An IBM keyboard which mainly influenced Microsoft’s standards for keyboards, having Ctrl and Alt as function keys
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