Back in the 80's when I first started working with, then on
computers the key board had 86 keys (unless it was a terminal keyboard then it
had up to 94 or 96 keys depending on who the manufacture was, VAX, IBM,
Solaris). Then in the early 90's a new keyboard came out that had a built in 10
key pad, the numerical pad on the right hand side of the keyboard. Previously the
10 key pad was a separate peripheral that cost extra (a lot extra) also you had
to have a program that had the function of the 10 key pad built in to it. They
also added some more keys, F10 to F12, Print Screen, Pause, and so forth this is
called the 101 key keyboard.
Also at the same time a new key came out, the 'any key'.
Now as I said I started working on computers a long time ago and I have never
found the 'any key'. But when you install a new program you always see the term
- 'press any key to continue'. I think there is a disconnect between the
programmers and the engineers. There is no any key on the keyboard!
Although I have seen some labels you could put over a key cap that had the 'any
key' written on them it never actually worked. After all if you covered up
the 'a' key or the 'y' key when you pressed them you printed the
a or y on the
screen. Try it, open up your word processor and press one of the keys, the
letter is printed. You could press one of the F keys (the function keys at the
top of the keyboard) but if there is a function programmed for that key then you
get the result, such as the F1 key is normally help, and the F10 is the tab, and
so forth.
Now days the keyboard has incorporated in to it short cut
keys for email, volume control, internet search, chat, and some other keys
that can be programmed to start up the associated program. But after searching
through the documentation for the Microsoft Wireless keyboard for my wife I can
not find the short cut instructions to program one of those keys as the 'any
key'. This really does bother me because I feel like either I am ignorant or
I have missed something in my training and learning experience.
So if you know what happened to the 'any key' please let
me know cause this has been bugging me for over twenty years.
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