an odd question

From: Dan Wright <dtwright_at_uiuc.edu>
Date: Thu Aug 9 08:47:04 2001

not sure if this is exactly on-topic, but I figure if anyone would know, it
would be this bunch... where did the convention of using "^x" to represent
"Ctrl-x" come from? I wonder because you see that convention everywhere, but
it's totally non-intuitave -- i.e. why does the carat symbol mean "hold control
while pressing the following key"? I think this came up because someone
pointed out that using pine the first time was really hard until they figured
out what "^" meant. so, anyone know where that convention came from?

- Dan Wright
(dtwright_at_uiuc.edu)
(http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)

-] ------------------------------ [-] -------------------------------- [-
``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with holy dread,
  For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
       Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
Received on Thu Aug 09 2001 - 08:47:04 BST

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