Super key (keyboard button)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Super key (❖ Super)[1] is an alternative name for what is commonly labelled as the Windows key[2] or Command key[3] on modern computer keyboards, typically bound and handled as such by Linux and BSD operating systems and software today.
The Super key was originally a modifier key on a keyboard designed for Lisp machines at MIT.
Present: Alt Mode / Top, Greek, ⇧ Shift / Hyper, Super, Meta, and Control
The "space-cadet" keyboard, designed in 1978 at MIT for the Lisp machine, introduced two new modifier keys, "Super" and "Hyper",[4] compared to the earlier Knight keyboard also used with Lisp machines. Both keys became supported in the powerful Emacs text editor, which had, or would receive, influential ports on Multics, Unix, and many other operating systems, and saw wide adoption at institutions beyond MIT.
Beginning in 1984, the X Window System (a graphical user interface standard for Unix-like operating systems) supported the Meta, Super, and Hyper modifiers, as well as the common Shift, Control, and Alt keys. Unix workstations of that era sometimes featured Super keys located between the Control and AltGr or Meta keys (sometimes including a Compose key), but the eventual dominance of the IBM Model M 101/102-key layout (which only had Ctrl, Alt, and Shift modifiers) would make the keys unavailable on any modern hardware.
Despite the disappearance of these keys, many of Emacs' complex commands still required use of them, and the X11 technical UI standards for Unix still supported them, so these were soon a target to be emulated with alternative key combinations. Emacs emulated Meta+x with Escx or Alt+x (it still described these keys as "M-x" where M- means "Meta"). Emacs commands using the Super and Hyper keys were not emulated and gradually fell into disuse, replaced with incompatible sequences starting with Ctrl+x or Alt+x.
In 1994, the ⊞ Windows key first appeared on the popular Microsoft Natural Keyboard. It was in the same general location as the old workstation Super or Meta keys, in a space that the 101/102-key layout hadn't used. The subsequent proliferation of the Windows key as a part of the standard 104/105-key layout offered a new option to map another input modifier key expected in the Unix world. At first, around 1996, it was common practice to make the Windows key act as Meta. However, because of the existing alternative keys for Meta in Emacs, the reintroduction of a hardware Meta key binding did not prove exceptionally useful. This made Super the next most frequently emulated key of choice, and thus it became the standard assignment for the Windows key under X11.
Most Linux software and documentation calls these keys "Super" keys. However, they are still referred to as KEY_LEFTMETA and KEY_RIGHTMETA in the kernel,[5] and some documentation such as that of KDE Plasma refers to it as just the Meta key.[6][7] "Windows" and ⌘[8] are also used in documentation.