meaning of dotted quad
1. dotted quad dot notation double bucky Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F. " This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboard at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits control and meta shifting keys were nice, but there werent enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who dont like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber Duckie", which was published in "The Sesame Street Songbook" Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X. These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: Double Bucky Double bucky, youre the one! You make my keyboard lots of fun. Double bucky, an additional bit or two: Vo-vo-de-o! Control and meta, side by side, Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide! Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few! Oh, I sure wish that I Had a couple of Bits more! Perhaps a Set of pedals to Make the number of Bits four: Double double bucky! Double bucky, left and right ORd together, outta sight! Double bucky, Id like a whole word of Double bucky, Im happy I heard of Double bucky, Id like a whole word of you! - The Great Quux With apologies to Jeffrey Moss. This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer filk --- ESR. See also meta bit, cokebottle, and quadruple bucky. [Jargon File]
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