I am using a MacBook Pro laptop and on it there is a key labeled “delete.” But this key is not delete at all, its a backspace. I had to download a application called DoubleCommand that remaps certain keys to what you want. Since there is a second “enter” key I remapped delete to that. There is also a shortcut, if you hit “fn/delete” it acts like a forward delete key.
Is this the way you would expect a delete key to work? Every keyboard I have ever used, backspace was the key if you wanted to delete moving backwards, the delete key went forward…
Every Mac keyboard I have ever used, since the Apple IIc I bought in 1984, has had a delete key that deleted backwards. Microsoft calls it backspace. Apple calls it delete. It’s really just a convention thing, not a thing that Apple does “wrong.” You might as well complain about the missing “alt” key.
When I first started using PCs at work, I considered the forward delete key an extra bonus, but since I was so used to putting the cursor at the end of the thing I wanted to delete, I found that it was rarely useful. It’s all just what you’re accustomed to.
On the extended keyboards you get with the iMacs and towers, there’s a forward delete key. On the laptops, fn+delete has always worked for me. Use it enough, and you don’t even think about it.
Comment by SP — April 11, 2007 @ 6:27 pm
Editing code without a delete key is a pain, function delete works fine now that I am used to it, but its still no replacement for a Windows style delete key.
Comment by Ryan — April 11, 2007 @ 8:48 pm