And don't get me started on the following issue: the popular shortcuts in programs (Photoshop, for example) are activated: - by Ctrl (Ctrl-S) on Windows. Ctrl is the leftmost key on most PC keyboards. - by Command (Command-S) on Mac. Command is the key just left to the spacebar on Apple keyboards. - by Windows key on a PC keyboard connected to a Mac. Windows key is exactly in between the keys mentioned above. - by Ctrl key on Mac keyboard connected to a PC.
Talk about confusion and inability to use your muscle memory! I don't blame any platform for this problem, and I see no simple solution to it [1], but this is 20 years after both platforms started and we're still suffering...
Simply put, the keyboard shortcuts for many of the actions we now take for granted were already in the first Macintosh (128k, back in 1984). These included Cmd-c for copy, Cmd-v for paste, Cmd-a for select all and such. When Windows appeared a few years later, they decided to use the same letters, but alas the Command key was not present on pc keyboards (as is not, to this day), so they used Control instead. Then macs started to come with a Control key, as well a Command key.
There was also no Alt key in macs. There was an Option key, which was marked with the "railway" symbol from early on. Nowadays, it is marked "Alt", but old time mac users (like me :-)) still think of it as the "Option" key. Kind of strange, when you tell someone something like "drag the icon while holding Command and Option to create an alias" and people say "I don't have an Option key in my keyboard".
Luís Sequeira
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