In reply to a post by andynormancx:

Wikipedia suggests that it was IBM CUA that settled on shift-del, ctrl-ins, ctrl-del and that it was Microsoft that added ctrl-x/ctrl-c/ctrl-v later to line up with the Mac (in Win 3.1 as you said, but they were actually departing from CUA).

Good spot… my memory of OS/2 was probably after the IBM/MS split and IBM probably copied Win3.1 keystrokes (against CUA)

I suspect IBM would have recognised that ctrl-c wasn't a good choice...

Not sure there, the PS/2 wasn’t a great sell… despite being all over Dixons for years 😂

I still try F10 for menus, but its not that well known

In reply to a post by jchamier:

[Because they can? :) If you can get the Apple large bluetooth keyboard, it has a layout similar to the PC 102key layout, and makes switching much easier (or if you run Windows/Linux in virtual machines).

Its [url="https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MMMR3LB/A/magic-keyboard-with-touch-id-and-numeric-keypad-for-mac-models-with-apple-silicon-us-english-black-keys?fnode=8db259d1f1d84b7e16903cbf8677e2799335a065a04816242984dfb2b67a3c9721e83057ec6d47cf9fc3b7f0546a71c6b5e274b59f446a1d5cfaaffeacff8ac9db1aee1db9aeb8f6660232b0beb78bb191570d7573c1be4dbd05ac769f850e86"]insanely expensive now, with the TouchID built in... ugh!

Wow, that is expensive, I will stick with my Logitech mx keys mini

In reply to a post by andynormancx:

Or because they were first (or at least the first to bring cut/copy/paste to a consumer graphical user interface). And they chose to add the CMD key to do these things.

When Microsoft came to do the same thing they didn't have the luxury of designing their own keyboard so they were stuck with the control key.

Which lead to unfortunate compromises like ctrl-c not working in the command window in Windows, because ctrl-c is generally used for interrupting running command line processes. A situation which is still there in the default command line environment in Windows 37 years later!

Before ctrl-x, ctrl-c, ctrl-v it was even more wacky: shift-del, ctrl-ins, shift-ins.

Not to mention every text editor on MSDOS having completely different key combinations for cut/copy/paste. I still use the Wordstar ctrl-k, b | ctrl-k, k | ctrl-k c | ctrl-k v combinations when I'm editing text over on Linux (I never did get to grips with the nonsense that is vi, first thing I do on a new Linux install is to add the Joe text editor).

Curiously ctrl-x, ctrl-c, ctrl-v work in Microsoft apps on the Mac, alongside the standard CMD based ones.

Yes, they were the first.
I only used Wordstar a little bit, I don't remember much about it.
i will get used to it like the @ sing being on the number 2 key

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

i will get used to it like the @ sing being on the number 2 key

Yeah, I switch between Mac, Windows, iPad/keyboard, and Linux machines. That moving @ sign is the worst one... my fingers automatically swap Ctrl/Cmd

The # key is the most inconvenient for me. (I do a lot of programming.) Especially when inside a VM.

Good use of copy/paste

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

The # key is the most inconvenient for me. (I do a lot of programming.) Especially when inside a VM.
[/quote

Wow, i did not realise that there is no # on the Mac keyboard, i had to do a search to find out how to do that.

Not when you are programming in C. You need to use # too often.

It is available on the Mac keyboard, just not as convenient as a dedicated key. And it takes a bit of trickery if using a Mac keyboard with Linux to set up a # key.

Originally the Mac was programmed in Pascal which doesn't (I think) need a hash key. And the hash is available on US keyboards.

In reply to a post by TinyMongomery:

Not when you are programming in C. You need to use # too often.

Yep, #include <stdio.h> just for a start. And for comments in any shell scripts. The US Mac keyboard doesn't have this issue.

(I recall the 1984 Mac with the Localizer diskette that changed the keyboard, I think that was the start of no # for the UK !)