[layer8]

Decades ago, Return and Enter were two different keys for that reason: Return to insert a line break, Enter to submit your input.

Given the reduction to a single key, the traditional GUI rule is that Enter in a multiline/multi-paragraph input doesn’t submit like it does in other contexts, but inserts a line break (or paragraph break), while Ctrl+Enter submits.

Chat apps, where single-paragraph content is the typical case, tend to reverse this. Good apps make this configurable.

[jeberle]

Before that, page-mode terminals used <Return> to move to first field on a subsequent line (like a line-based <Tab>) and sent the page only on <Enter> or <Fn-key>. This made for quick navigation w/ zero ambiguity.

[irishcoffee]

Carriage return and line feed go way back. Tty stands for teletype. A computer was the job description of a person.

It’s turtles all the way down.

[falcor84]

What lower turtles were there? My impression was that teletypes were the first proper keyboard-based interfaces.

[Someone]

> My impression was that teletypes were the first proper keyboard-based interfaces.

They (about) were, AFAIK, but using them with computers wasn’t their first usage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprinter:

“A teleprinter (teletypewriter, teletype or TTY) is an electromechanical device used to send and receive typed messages through various communications channels

[…]

Initially, from 1887 at the earliest, teleprinters were used in telegraphy. Electrical telegraphy had been developed decades earlier in the late 1830s and 1840s, then using simpler Morse key equipment and telegraph operators

[…]

With the development of early computers in the 1950s, teleprinters were adapted to allow typed data to be sent to a computer”

Even for that, there was prior art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_telegraph, which used a piano-style keyboard.

The Linotype also is quite old. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linotype_machine:

“The Linotype machine operator types text on a 90-character keyboard.

[…]

In July, 1886, the first commercially used Linotype was installed in the printing office of the New York Tribune.”

[smokel]

Mechanical typewriters have different physical mechanisms to feed forward a line or make the carriage return. I think it doesn't turtle much further back than that.

[trashb]

Well around the time of the first typewriters (late 19th century) there where mechanical typesetters, automating the laborious task of typesetting for the printing press. Of course the mechanics of printing where different but as far as I know this is the source of the "keyboard with buttons" type interface for producing literature.

[bluGill]

The telegraph was keybased - only one key so I can't call it a keyboard, but in other ways it is what you are asking about.

[wongarsu]

Pianos have keys. And some telegraphs were outfitted with piano-like keyboards with one key per letter. Wikipedia has some pictures in the printing telegraph article [1]. So there is arguably a clear lineage from pianos to the modern computer keyboard.

Pianos however don't really have a concept of advancing the line or sending a recorded message.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_telegraph

[bluGill]

player pianos existed with the concept of advancing are recorded messages. I forgot about them until you metioned them. The music box goes way back

[somat]

Now I am searching to see if there were models of player pianos intended to punch tape.

I have never really thought about it but a player piano sort of implies it can only play the roll. If pressed I would guess that player piano rolls were cut by hand. I mean, I am sure they had tools to help them and probably fully automatic duplication machines. but did anyone play the piano to get a piano roll? or was it more like transcribing sheet music?

[iambateman]

Microsoft teams: not as bad as people say, except for this situation.

I have accidentally sent so many messages trying to get to a new line.

[fireflash38]

It's because enter does different things at different times in the exact same text box.

Write a code snippet/block text. Does [enter] insert a newline, exit the block, or send the message?

What about in a bulleted or numbered list?

And my 2 biggest pet peeves with MS Teams:

1. trying to edit the first letter in a `preformat block`. It's not possible. It will either exit the block or go to the second letter.

2. Consistency with bold/italics. Bold a selection of text. Then backspace once. Are you going to write bold or normal? What does ctrl-B do? Anytime you backspace into a bolded section, it will convert your editing back to bold, and you cannot disable bold.

[studog]

I have a very small Kevin Bacon number to the "guy who runs Teams". The message from them is "please use the built-in feedback tool to tell us about these things".

[oneeyedpigeon]

I also sent a LOT of Slack messages prematurely for the same reason. Used to it now, though. The more an interface emphasises the single-line nature of a text input, the better. Multi-line should never submit on enter, single-line always should.

[thinkharderdev]

Same, but it's configurable in slack so now I have it configured the Enter inserts a line break and Cmd+Enter submits the message

[baud147258]

while I haven't changed it, it seems that you configure that behavior in the current version of Teams (Settings > Chats and channels)

[cratermoon]

don't get me started on backspace vs delete...

[PaulDavisThe1st]

not just that ... plenty of web apps (and maybe desktop native ones too, though I don't notice it as much there) use "smart-delete" - if the cursor has a character after it, the delete key deletes it, but if not, it operates like backspace (which ought to be labelled "delete prev").

[no-name-here]

I haven’t happened to have seen that - which web apps do it?

[PaulDavisThe1st]

Hmm, at this point I think I might be imagining it ... I'll let you know if I can find it ...

[QuantumNomad_]

Some older Apple keyboards had their backspace button labelled “delete” which to me made it sound like that was the “del” button and not the backspace button.

[Findecanor]

That was the convention on many older computing platforms.

A "Backspace" key on a typewriter did not actually delete: It merely moved the typing position back one space.

[m463]

^H^H^H^H^?^?^?

[plufz]

That evil laughter from a disobedient tty. :(