Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by spread_love 1027 days ago
Like a train switching tracks! I never noticed.

So what does ⌘ represent?

6 comments

That you are using a mac? I ised to still call it the super or windows button, because my macbook ran linux. This whole article is mac centric, but it doesn't seem aware of that. Most keyboards don't have the switch symbol, most just say alt, and its where the mac has the command key.
> This whole article is mac centric, but it doesn't seem aware of that.

I found it pretty clear from the title, site affiliation disclaimer, background image, section headers, language, and overall theme of the article. What's misleading you?

“Place of interest sign,” according to the Unicode spec. Also, command key and OS key as secondary meanings.

https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2300.pdf

Apparently it is "Command" but also the Swedish campground symbol?

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campgrou...

It is on Swedish road signs indicating a sight/attraction/monument, usually an ancient one. It is a stylised ribbon/snake pattern that resembles one that you could find on a rune stone. <https://xn--vgmrken-5wac.se/tag/sevardhet/>

A variation of the symbol is also the symbol for the National Heritage Board, which is in charge of protection of ancient monuments.

The road sign for "Camp ground" has a stylised tent: <https://xn--vgmrken-5wac.se/tag/campingplats/>

A castle.

> Susan Kare states that she has since been told that the symbol was picked for its Scandinavian usage due to its resembling the shape of a square castle with round corner towers as seen from above looking down, notably Borgholm Castle.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_key#Origin_of_the_sy...

So what does ⌘ represent?

The revisionist history is that it's a Swedish map symbol repurposed.

People who were there will tell you that it's called "double infinity" and was used because the regular infinity symbol lacked visual weight and it was thought might be too similar to other keys.

Susan Kare selected the symbol herself. I wouldn't exactly call her explanation "revisionist".
Macintosh Folklore disagrees. That's literally as close to "people who were there" as one can get.

https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campgrou...

Interesting. Though I'm curious why infinity was even a consideration in the first place.
Interesting. Though I'm curious why infinity was even a consideration in the first place.

That part I don't know. Maybe just because it's geeky, and the original Mac team was certainly that; even the ones involved in its physical design.

A propeller. On the early prototypes of the Mac, that key was used to fire the torpedoes.