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Arrow keys 

Cursor movement keys or arrow keys are buttons on a computer keyboard that are either programmed or designated to move the cursor in a specified direction.[1] The term "cursor movement key" is distinct from "arrow key" in that the former term may refer to any of various keys on a computer keyboard designated for cursor movement, whereas the latter term generally refers to one of four specific keys, typically marked with arrows.[2]

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Arrow keys

Arrow keys
Arrow keys

Arrow keys typically located at the bottom of the keyboard to the side of the numeric keypad, usually arranged in an inverted-T layout but also found in diamond shapes. Arrow keys are commonly used for navigating around documents and for playing games. Before the computer mouse was widespread, arrow keys were the primary way of moving a cursor on screen. MouseKeys is a feature that allows controlling a mouse cursor with arrow keys instead. A feature echoed in the Amiga's whereby holding the Amiga key would allow you to move the mouse pointer with the arrow keys in the workbench(OS), but most games require a mouse or joystick. The use of Arrow Keys in games has come back into fashion from the late 1980s and early 1990s when Joysticks were a must, and were usually used in preference to Arrow Keys with some games not supporting any Keys.

The inverted-T layout was popularized by the Digital Equipment Corporation LK201 keyboard from 1982.

The original Apple Macs had no arrow keys
The original Apple Macs had no arrow keys

The original Apple Macintosh had no arrow keys at the insistence of CEO Steve Jobs, who felt that people should use the mouse instead.[1] Arrow keys were included in later Apple keyboards. Early models with arrow keys but no middle section (Home, End, etc.) placed them in one line below the right-hand Shift key in an HJKL-like fashion; later versions had a standard inverted-T layout in the middle block.

Other cursor movement keys

Although the "arrow keys" provide one convention for cursor movement on computers, there are also other conventions for cursor movement that use entirely different keys.

  • the WASD keys (on QWERTY keyboards) and ,AOE (on Dvorak keyboards). Sometimes this combination is used simultaneously with the arrow keys. For example, in many 3D games a player will navigate the level with WASD while moving the camera is done with the arrow keys or vice versa. The mouse can be used as well, and is a more commonly used than the arrow keys to control camera movement.
  • the ESDF keys, an alternative to WASD, which keeps the hand in the same place as it normally would be for touch-typing.
  • the 8462 or 7845 keys on the numeric keypad.
  • the HJKL keys (in vi and related editors; this lets the user navigate without having to move their hand too far)
  • the ESDX keys (known as the "cursor movement diamond") were used in the WordStar word processor and related applications

WASD

WASD positioning
WASD positioning

WASD (also conceptually known by common ESDF and IJKL) is a set of four keys on a QWERTY or QWERTZ computer keyboard which mimics the inverted-T configuration of the arrow keys. These keys are often used to control the player character's movement in computer games. W/S control forward and backward and A/D control strafing left and right. Primarily, WASD is used to account for the fact that the arrow keys are not ergonomic to use in conjunction with a right-handed mouse.

Many gamerswho? consider the WASD keys to be superior to the arrow keyscitation needed for other various reasons, including the fact that more keys (and therefore, game commands) are easily accessible with the left hand when placed near WASD. Left-handed mouse users may prefer using the numpad or IJKL with their right hands instead for similar reasons.

After being popularized by first-person shooters, WASD became more common in other computer game genres as wellcitation needed. Many of the games that have adopted this layout use a first-person or over-the-shoulder third-person perspective.

IJKL

Many browser-based games use IJKL as cursor movement keys, where arrows cause undesirable browser window shifting. These keys are in a similar layout to the arrow keys and players can easily adapt to their use. The most common reason for using IJKL rather than arrow keys is the fact that many browsers will attempt to scroll the main window when arrow keys are used, which can be disruptive to gameplay. This is a problem specific to DHTML/JavaScript games.

The IJKL key combination is very similar to the HJKL keys that were historically used as navigation keys in early computer programs for computers that either did not contain arrow keys, or had them placed in a difficult configuration.

Some older computer games, especially those on 8-bit platforms, often had the combination IJKM hardwired into the software as the standard control key combination.

Games for the 8-bit Apple II platform often used IJKM instead - more logically arranged, if far less ergonomic than an inverted-T. In addition, special support existed in ROM for Escape mode. At the Applesoft BASIC prompt, using the right and left arrow keys to move the cursor would add/remove characters the cursor passed over to/from the input buffer. Pressing the Escape key entered a mode where pressing the I, J, K or M keys would move the cursor without altering the input buffer. After exiting this mode by pressing Escape again, normal behavior would resume. This made it easy to edit lines of BASIC code by listing them, then re-inputting them with edits interspersed. Using IJKL to move the cursor and H to insert in Vim

QAOP

Many games for 8-bit home computers, like the ZX Spectrum, used QAOP as directional control keys. Some older computer games on PCs use QAOP.

Left hand was used for vertical movement (Q=up, A=down) while the right hand was used for horizontal movement (O=left, P=right), with the right-hand thumb pressing the space bar or M for 'fire'.

There were also several other sets of keys based on the similar idea. In all cases, the sets were designed to avoid keyboard clash, whereby multiple keys pressed simultaneously would not register if they were within the same input band.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Inside Macintosh By Caroline Rose, Bradley Hacker, Apple Computer, Inc By Caroline Rose , Bradley Hacker , Apple Computer, Inc Published 1985 Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. Macintosh (Computer) ISBN:0201054094 Original from the University of Michigan Digitized Nov 16, 2007
  2. ^ Visual editing on unix By B. Srinivasan, K. Ranai Published 1989 World Scientific Text editors (Computer programs) 182 pages ISBN:9971507706

See also


IBM/Windows keyboard (US layout)
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