double bucky
double bucky
This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard,and was later taken up by users of the space-cadet keyboardat MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford bucky bits (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but thereweren't enough of them; you could type only 512 differentcharacters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to addressthis was simply to add more shifting keys, and this waseventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keysis hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their handsaway from the home position on the keyboard. It washalf-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys beimplemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be verymuch like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentionedin a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "RubberDuckie", which was published in "The Sesame Street Songbook"(Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyricswere written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanfordkeyboard:
Double Bucky
Double bucky, you're the one!You make my keyboard lots of fun.Double bucky, an additional bit or two:(Vo-vo-de-o!)Control and meta, side by side,Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!Oh,I sure wish that IHad a couple ofBits more!Perhaps aSet of pedals toMake the number ofBits four:Double double bucky!Double bucky, left and rightOR'd together, outta sight!Double bucky, I'd like a whole word ofDouble bucky, I'm happy I heard ofDouble bucky, I'd like a whole word of you!
- The Great Quux
(With apologies to Jeffrey Moss. This, by the way, is anexcellent example of computer filk --- ESR).
See also meta bit, cokebottle, and quadruple bucky.