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3.4 KiB
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22 lines
3.4 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>bucky bits</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../B.html" title="B"/><link rel="previous" href="bubble-sort.html" title="bubble sort"/><link rel="next" href="buffer-chuck.html" title="buffer chuck"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">bucky bits</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="bubble-sort.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">B</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="buffer-chuck.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="bucky-bits"/><dt xmlns="" id="bucky-bits"><b>bucky bits</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="pronunciation">/buh<75>kee bits/</span>, <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. [obs.] The bits produced by the CONTROL and META shift keys on a
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SAIL keyboard (octal 200 and 400 respectively), resulting in a 9-bit
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keyboard character set. The MIT AI TV (Knight) keyboards extended this
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with TOP and separate left and right CONTROL and META keys, resulting in a
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12-bit character set; later, LISP Machines added such keys as SUPER, HYPER,
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and GREEK (see <a href="../S/space-cadet-keyboard.html"><i class="glossterm">space-cadet keyboard</i></a>). </p></dd><dd><p> 2. By extension, bits associated with ‘extra’ shift keys
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on any keyboard, e.g., the ALT on an IBM PC or command and option keys on a
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Macintosh.</p></dd><dd><p>It has long been rumored that <span class="firstterm">bucky
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bits</span> were named for Buckminster Fuller during a period when he
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was consulting at Stanford. Actually, bucky bits were invented by Niklaus
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Wirth when <span class="emphasis"><em>he</em></span> was at Stanford in 1964--65; he first
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suggested the idea of an EDIT key to set the 8th bit of an otherwise 7-bit
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ASCII character). It seems that, unknown to Wirth, certain Stanford
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hackers had privately nicknamed him ‘Bucky’ after a prominent
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portion of his dental anatomy, and this nickname transferred to the bit.
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Bucky-bit commands were used in a number of editors written at Stanford,
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including most notably TV-EDIT and NLS.</p><p>The term spread to MIT and CMU early and is now in general use.
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Ironically, Wirth himself remained unaware of its derivation for nearly 30
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years, until GLS dug up this history in early 1993! See
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<a href="../D/double-bucky.html"><i class="glossterm">double bucky</i></a>, <a href="../Q/quadruple-bucky.html"><i class="glossterm">quadruple bucky</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="bubble-sort.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../B.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="buffer-chuck.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">bubble sort<72></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>buffer chuck</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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