Mechanical Keyboards

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What's the history of the "meh" key? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Well bite my shiny metal ass - how is there no wikipedia entry for "meh key"? They have alt key, control key, and even super key, but no meh key. I'm curious if the meh key came from a specific keyboard or what the origins are.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

from this blog post it seems, that the 'meh' key is inspired by the 'Hyper' key. Both being Aliases for hard to reach key-combinations.

I think the reason they don't have a Wikipedia article (yet), is because they are aliases for combinations rather than "real" keys.

Meh seems to be the combination of <Alt+Ctrl+Shift>.

https://ergodox-ez.com/our-open-source-firmware

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks for the reply! That would be good info to include in the future wiki. Still curious if this key originated with some 1970s era keyboard or if it came from something more modern.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That would be the Space-cadet

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm seeing super, hyper, and meta on the Space-Cadet, but no meh.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Ah, sorry. I was answering about hyper.

The earliest reference to "meh key" I'm turning up on Kagi is from ErgoDox's Indiegogo in 2015.

They may have coined the term.

[–] oxomoxo 1 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I am pretty confident you’re right about the origin. Ergodox wanted to add an additional macro key and needed a name for a less hyper Hyper key. Since then a couple other keyboard manufacturers adopted it. Much like its name, its history is also “meh”

[–] breckenedge 1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

You mean the meta key?

[–] fhein 3 points 3 weeks ago

The "meh key" simulates pressing ctrl+alt+shift at the same time. Can't find any particular keyboard having it first, could have been added to QMK and then people who wanted it just added it to their layouts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

While the meta key is well documented, the meh key is vaguely mentioned in multiple modern split keyboards such as ZSA keyboards and the Kinesis Advantage.