Swedish Campground (2004)

http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campground.txt

by EGreg • 13 years ago

111 49 13 years ago

mistercow• 13 years ago

I had heard about this, but didn't know about the "taking the Apple logo in vain" part. It's so wonderfully Steve Jobs in its being both crazy arrogant and also probably correct.

caycep• 13 years ago

I must have wasted hours of my life on that website. Damn you Andy Herzfeld!

ineedtosleep• 13 years ago

Every now and then I still call the Command key the 'open apple key' which also then shows how much I know about modern Apple computers (as in I don't own or use one normally).

jfb• 13 years ago

I work at Apple and I still call it the Apple key.

coolsunglasses• 13 years ago

I pinch my nose when I use a Mac and call it the command key. Sometimes you never can tell.

I think I call it this because it's a de-facto super key for me as an Emacs user and the title of it is inescapable.

yuhong3• 13 years ago

I think the Apple logo was added to it when ADB was introduced with the Apple IIgs and Mac SE/II. It was eliminated in the new keyboards released in Aug 2007.

emmelaich• 13 years ago

aka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John's_Arms

To me it looks a little like the symbol for places of historical interest, which is a fort / castle symbol.

jpatokal• 13 years ago

In Finland, it is the symbol for a place of (usually historical) interest, and it's encoded in Unicode as such:

⌘ PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN (U+2318)

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2318/index.htm

lttlrck• 13 years ago

That's what the article says...

epa• 13 years ago

Another article with a picture: http://www.decodeunicode.org/u+2318

kristiandupont• 13 years ago

I wonder if there are any anecdotes about Steve Jobs that aren't about him busting in somewhere, shouting something.

axman6• 13 years ago

Why would that be any fun?

rogerbinns• 13 years ago

The key I have issue with is the weird sort of smiley. Or maybe it is half a bathtub. Or some sort of plumbing diagram. At least the command key can be described to someone else as a clover. What on earth were people supposed to associate the skateboard ramp with? It is the middle one in this image http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/MacBook_o...

mtinkerhess• 13 years ago

It looks like a line that's taking an alternate route.

The ISO symbol shows that a little more clearly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ISOIEC-9995-7-025--ISO-700...

drewrm• 13 years ago

I've heard it called "train tracks" since it looks like a set of railway points.

jcl• 13 years ago

It's a circuit diagram for a switch. It represents a choice between two paths, as appropriate for the "option" key.

http://electronicsclub.info/circuitsymbols.htm#switches

limmeau• 13 years ago

My favourite is "toothbrush head".

simonh2• 13 years ago

That's the international, ISO standard symbol for "Two finger salute to any Brits that want a # key". By pressing it with the number '3' we used to be able to type a # symbol, even though it wasn't shown on the key, because Apple hates us.

Since Lion Apple has decided that just making our lives difficult wasn't enough, we really don't deserve the # symbol at all, and now that combination switches desktops. There is no keyboard combination on a standard, un-hacked factory delivered UK Mac that produces a # symbol. Really.

I keep a text file on my desktop that contains a single # character and cut-n-paste it when I need one.

coob2• 13 years ago

What?

Alt-3 works just fine me on a UK Mac for making a #. I have made no tweaks.

duncans• 13 years ago

Alt-3 for # working fine here (in the UK). You might have non-standard shortcuts set up in System Prefs > Mission Control or an odd keyboard layout installed.

stormbrew• 13 years ago

What always infuriated me when looking at Apple menus on OSX, when I was a user of it, was the icon for Option/Alt. http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/...

I can't remember if it appeared on old mac keyboards, but it definitely doesn't on modern ones and to me it just looks like a completely abstract symbol. I could never remember if it was control or option.

Zarel• 13 years ago

I think of that symbol as a fork in the road, an "option". Control, on the other hand, is just ^, same as in Unix.

(I'm not saying it's a good symbol, but that's how I remember what it means.)

picklestime• 13 years ago

My friend used to call it the "escalator" symbol.

It is pretty abstract. I see it as a representation of a switch or two different alternatives.

samatman• 13 years ago

I cannot comprehend why that symbol is not on the keyboard. There are two words on the key, neither one of which is used on the screen. Insane.

sneak• 13 years ago

It used to be, but was removed.

I wish there was some sort of changelog for Apple internal policies/decisions that end up being public facing.

kalleboo• 13 years ago

It is on most the international keyboards. Why they leave it out from the US and JP keyboard, I don't know.

rahoulb• 13 years ago

It is on my (UK layout) MBA and Bluetooth keyboard (although its also labelled as Alt and not Opt).

Control doesn't have a symbol on it though.

jordanthoms• 13 years ago

The way keyboard shortcuts are represented on Mac is one of the things which is actually really user-unfriendly in OSX. I'm supposed to just know that an arrow means shift, a weird line means option/alt, the command key symbol, theres also a caret which means... something? And, to make it worse, most of the keys don't actually have their symbols printed on them, at least with the retina MBP.

bobthedino• 13 years ago

That is unfortunate. I have a 2011 MBP with a UK keyboard, and all the special keys have the symbols on them, except for Control.

The way the shortcuts are shown in menus has always seemed like a nice, clear and space-efficient way of doing it. It seems a shame that Apple doesn't put the symbols on all its keyboards, because without those, new users are not going to know what the menu shortcuts are referring to.

INTPenis• 13 years ago

Swedish campground is a tent symbol, the first description fits better "interesting feature or attraction". Usually it's something ancient, like a viking burial mound or an old fortress. Real name "fornminne".

tricolon• 13 years ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2643611

unicornporn2• 13 years ago

The road sign does not mean camping ground here in Sweden and it never has. It means something like "sight", "monument" or "place of interest".

Here's is the road sign at the Swedish Transport Board: http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/Vag/Vagmarken/Lokaliseri...

The description says: The sign indicates a sight of national interest. The nature of the sight is mentioned in connection to the mark.

More information is available here (Google translated): http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&ie...

gjm11• 13 years ago

The article doesn't say that it means camping ground. It says it means

a floral symbol that was used in Sweden to indicate an interesting feature or attraction in a campground

which is something entirely different. (It might still be wrong -- from what you say it sounds as if it's used in plenty of places other than campgrounds -- but it isn't wrong in the way you imply it is.)

buro9• 13 years ago

It means something like "sight", "monument" or "place of interest".

It literally means "worth seeing".

It's not even "belvedere" or "tourist attraction", which tell you the type of thing on maps in other countries.

I've always liked it for the ambiguity.

And the shape captures a simplification of early viking forts: http://www.planetware.com/map/trelleborg-viking-camp-c-1-000...

In that respect, the icon means tourist attraction.

unicornporn2• 13 years ago

"Worth seeing" is a better translation, thank you.

EGreg2• 13 years ago

Just FYI: the original title I gave the post was "How the Mac got its control key symbol."

hackmiester• 13 years ago

It's an okay title, but the Mac has a different key called "control" that is unrelated (other than being a modifier key). That's not the key this article is talking about.

EGreg2• 13 years ago

I meant "comand key symbol"

The title was changed by a mod

thomasfl• 13 years ago

For me as a scandinavian it still is the museum sign. Even after all these years as a mac user.

arnarbi• 13 years ago

The symbol means "Place of interest" in all of the Nordic countries, not a campground. It would typically point to a museum or some heritage site. Here's some information about the sybmology:

http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/hans.html

amerika• 13 years ago

Sweden: not only do they have the best death metal, but they have the best icon design. It must all originate in the Futhark.

hmottestad• 13 years ago

The swedes actually copied it from Norway.

hahahaha.

Though to be honest we actually do have it here in Norway.

Swedish Campground (2004)

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