Talk:Backspace

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[edit] CRT displays?

The article currently says: "Of course, ever since moving to CRT displays, backspace composition no longer works.". Shouldn't this say something about moving to digital computers instead, because the monitor doesn't seem really related to what the article covers. The typwriter-to-computer thing is the important change. Right? Retodon8 13:52, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Ever seen a teletypewriter? EdC 12:01, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "one recent usage"

I removed this bit:

One recent usage of the BackSpace was a disaster. A ten million record ASCII file seemed to stop early, after just a few records. It seems that people wanted to spell Munoz with the tilda over the n, but did not know that it was alt-241. They saw that ~ was Alt-126 and probably backspaced to put it in. Good try, but no cigar. They were sloppy and put in ALT-026 which is DOS for EOF (End-Of-File).

Specifically, I have two small issues with this: It doesn't provide any source at all ("one recent usage"...?) - we're not supposed to cover anecdotes unless they're covered in some reputable source, which might indicate this thing is a bit more well known. Dropping random anecdotes here is original research. And, the thing is not actually about backspace at all, but how DOS handles EOF character. --wwwwolf (barks/growls) 18:39, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] backspace to type accented letters

"In typewriters, a typist would, for example, type a lowercase letter A with acute accent (á) by typing a lowercase letter A, backspace and then the acute accent key (also known as overstrike)."

Uhmm... I remember the method was to type first the accent and then the letter. You had to backspace only when you did forget to type the accent on time. Isn't it? --euyyn 20:51, 15 March 2007 (UTC)