Content deleted Content added
GreenC bot (talk | contribs) Removed 1 archive link; Move 1 url. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#zdnet.com |
|||
Line 17:
|url-status=live
}}</ref>
While most keys produce [[character (computing)|characters]] ([[Letter (alphabet)|letters]], [[Numerical digit|numbers]] or symbols), other keys (such as the [[escape key]]) can prompt the computer to execute system commands. In a modern computer, the interpretation of key presses is generally left to the software: the information sent to the computer, the [[scan code]], tells it only which physical key (or keys) was pressed or released.<ref name="msusb13a">[http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/scancode.doc Microsoft Keyboard Scan Code Specification] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909230403/https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/scancode.doc |date=9 September 2020 }} ([http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/161ba512-40e2-4cc9-843a-923143f3456c/scancode.doc Appendix C, "USB Keyboard/Keypad Page (0x07)"]
In normal usage, the keyboard is used as a [[text entry interface]] for typing text, numbers, and symbols into [[application software]] such as a [[word processor]], [[web browser]] or [[social media]] app. Touchscreens use [[virtual keyboard]]s.
Line 26:
As early as the 1870s, teleprinter-like devices were used to simultaneously type and transmit [[stock market]] text data from the keyboard across telegraph lines to [[stock ticker machine]]s to be immediately copied and displayed onto [[ticker tape]].{{cn|date=October 2023}} The teleprinter, in its more contemporary form, was developed from 1907 to 1910 by American mechanical engineer [[Charles Krum]] and his son [[Howard Krum|Howard]], with early contributions by electrical engineer [[Frank Pearne]]. Earlier models were developed separately by individuals such as [[Royal Earl House]] and [[Frederick G. Creed]].
Earlier, [[Herman Hollerith]] developed the first keypunch devices, which soon evolved to include keys for text and number entry akin to normal typewriters by the 1930s.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/gallery-ibm-100-years-of-thinking-big/|title=Gallery: IBM: 100 Years of THINKing Big|author=Smith, Andy|work=[[ZDNet]]|date=15 June 2011|access-date=20 October 2015|url-status=
The keyboard on the teleprinter played a strong role in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint communication for most of the 20th century, while the keyboard on the keypunch device played a strong role in data entry and storage for just as long. The development of some of the earliest computers incorporated electric typewriter keyboards: the development of the [[ENIAC]] computer incorporated a keypunch device as both the input and paper-based output device, and the [[BINAC]] computer made use of an electromechanically controlled typewriter for both data entry onto magnetic tape (instead of paper) and data output.<ref>{{cite web|website=ComputerWorld.com|date=2 November 2012|url=https://www.computerworld.com/article/2493059/computer-peripherals/past-is-prototype--the-evolution-of-the-computer-keyboard.html|title=Past is prototype: The evolution of the computer keyboard|access-date=6 August 2018|archive-date=6 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180806212417/https://www.computerworld.com/article/2493059/computer-peripherals/past-is-prototype--the-evolution-of-the-computer-keyboard.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
| |||