[ogab]

I liked this article a lot because I’ve spent way too much time thinking about things like this, thanks to my mechanical keyboard and keycap hobby.

That said, it misses a key ancestor: the original Macintosh Keyboard (M0110). It had a Return key AND an Enter key in the bottom row, to the right of the spacebar and next to the Option key.

There was Command key on the left only, which seems to mark the evolution from the “Open Apple” and “Closed Apple” keys. If I recall correctly, Return was intended for typing, while Enter was used for GUI interaction, but I’m not entirely sure.

Even into the 2000s, laptops were still figuring things out. I had a 12-inch PowerBook G4 with two keys labeled “Enter”:

- One accessible via Fn + Return - One as its own key in the bottom row, next to the right Command key

This layout meant it only had one Option key. It also featured a lockable numpad layer, so having a standalone Enter key made less sense to me. Unless it was meant for spreadsheet number crunchers? Or there was still that typing/GUI distinction in Mac OS 9 somewhere?

[bsimpson]

Here's a photo of that keyboard: https://www.instructables.com/Apple-M0110-Keyboard-Crossover...