Short answer:
Ctrl stands for "Control Key". It to be originally supplied to send control personalities to terminals.Alt stands for "Alternate Key". It"s named so because it enables alternate offers for various other keys.
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Long answer: check out Wikipedia:
Control Key
Alt Key
Ctrl goes means back to the earliest days of computing and was used for beginning ASCII control characters on one ASR33 teletype maker (similar come the people you view in movies in the newsroom that make so lot noise). They could run at the blinding speed of 110 baud (or about 10 characters/second).
As much as the Alt key goes, I an initial saw the on the initial IBM PC. It"s main use then was the "three finger salute," or Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
A pair of interesting, and relevant articles with respect to control characters:
Control Character
Teleprinter
ASCII
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edited may 29 "13 in ~ 16:19
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The "Control" part comes native "carriage control". The platten (round rubber cylinder that keys bounce on) moves ago and forth and up and also down on a "carriage" in a typewriter and the teletype mimics a typewriter. However, in a usual teletype the platten just rotates and also the publish head only moves ago and forth. However in those job you gained so tired pushing the KSR-33 teletype keys down that any kind of abuse of the English language was lengthy forgotten.
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edited Aug 12 "10 at 19:01
answered Aug 12 "10 at 1:49
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