From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

What was interesting to me in this article <https://www.zdnet.com/article/7-linux-terminal-basics-every-beginner-should-learn-first-and-why/>
was the difference in behaviour of CTRL/C and CTRL/V on Windows vs
Linux.

On the old timeshared systems from DEC, particularly, CTRL/C was
always the command-line interrupt character. Unix initially started
out with something else, but soon switched to the DEC convention.

This also carried over to CP/M and MS-DOS. Gary Kildall did some early
CP/M cross-development on a DEC system, and was influenced by that in
some of the design decisions he made; Microsoft, of course, simply
copied most of those features wholesale.

However, when Microsoft created Windows, somehow CTRL/C got preempted
as the menu shortcut for the copy-to-clipboard command. Why? Because
Apple was using its special “⌘” (“Command”) key on the Macintosh keyboard for menu shortcuts, and early Macintoshes didn’t have a CTRL
key, so ⌘ was commonly used to stand in for CTRL in terminal emulator
apps to connecting to remote multiuser machines, just for example,
therefore it seemed natural to carry that equivalence over to a
platform which did have a CTRL key, but had no ⌘ key as such.

Apple started the convention of standardizing the shortcuts for Undo,
Cut, Copy and Paste as being the leftmost four alpha keys at the
bottom of the US keyboard layout, which made them ⌘/Z, ⌘/X, ⌘/C and
⌘/V respectively, so Microsoft turned this into CTRL/Z, CTRL/X, CTRL/C
and CTRL/V respectively. (IBM PCs *did* have an ALT key, but nobody
seemed to think of using that for menu shortcuts ...)

So how were you supposed to interrupt a program running in a Windows
terminal window? Answers on a postcard, please.

Unix GUIs, on the other hand, faithfully maintained the meaning of
CTRL/C, probably because Unix users tended to appreciate the command
line a lot more than Windows or Mac users, and this carries through to
Linux today. So GUI terminal apps had to use some other keyboard
shortcuts for their copy/paste functions, and it seems CTRL-SHIFT-C
and CTRL-SHIFT-V have been the most common.

Non-terminal GUI apps, on the other hand, do use CTRL-C and CTRL-V for
these menu functions.

Trivia question: CTRL/V also has a traditional meaning in Unix/Linux
terminal sessions; what does it do?
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote this post while blinking in Morse code:

What was interesting to me in this article <https://www.zdnet.com/article/7-linux-terminal-basics-every-beginner-should-learn-first-and-why/>
was the difference in behaviour of CTRL/C and CTRL/V on Windows vs
Linux.

On the old timeshared systems from DEC, particularly, CTRL/C was
always the command-line interrupt character. Unix initially started
out with something else, but soon switched to the DEC convention.

This also carried over to CP/M and MS-DOS. Gary Kildall did some early
CP/M cross-development on a DEC system, and was influenced by that in
some of the design decisions he made; Microsoft, of course, simply
copied most of those features wholesale.

<snip>

Ctrl-C.

Unix GUIs, on the other hand, faithfully maintained the meaning of
CTRL/C, probably because Unix users tended to appreciate the command
line a lot more than Windows or Mac users, and this carries through to
Linux today. So GUI terminal apps had to use some other keyboard
shortcuts for their copy/paste functions, and it seems CTRL-SHIFT-C
and CTRL-SHIFT-V have been the most common.

Non-terminal GUI apps, on the other hand, do use CTRL-C and CTRL-V for
these menu functions.

Trivia question: CTRL/V also has a traditional meaning in Unix/Linux
terminal sessions; what does it do?

Escape character for things like Ctrl characters.

The fortune below reminds me of high school, when we had a PDP-8/E
computer. The "engineer" that came to fix it would simply pull
out a board and put a new one in.

Another irony. The stereotypical "smart guy" in our class, who
wore a tie every day to high school, ended up being, IIRC, an IBM
salesman.
--
A Scholar asked his Master, "Master, would you advise me of a proper
vocation?"
The Master replied, "Some men can earn their keep with the power of their minds. Others must use thier strong backs, legs and hands. This is
the same in nature as it is with man. Some animals acquire their food easily, such as rabbits, hogs and goats. Other animals must fiercely struggle for their sustenance, like beavers, moles and ants. So you see, the nature of
the vocation must fit the individual.
"But I have no abilities, desires, or imagination, Master," the
scholar sobbed.
Queried the Master... "Have you thought of becoming a salesperson?"
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: comp.sys.mac.advocacy

On Sep 10, 2025 at 11:55:38 PM EDT, "Lawrence D´Oliveiro" <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

This also carried over to CP/M and MS-DOS. Gary Kildall did some early
CP/M cross-development on a DEC system, and was influenced by that in
some of the design decisions he made; Microsoft, of course, simply
copied most of those features wholesale.

Microsoft, of course, BOUGHT a product (86-DOS and hired Time Patterson) that copied most of those features wholesale. That was the whole point of DOS, to
be as compatible as possible with CP/M. Because Gary Kildall was too stubborn to work out a deal with IBM.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2