IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
devblogs.microsoft.com
IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
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Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#2What did IBM want? Arrow keys?
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#3What did IBM want? Arrow keys?
Enter/return commonly used elsewhere.
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#4Weird because on the mainframe 3270 the tab key was used to move between fields, at least that is my recollection.
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#5So, what did IBM want to use instead?!?!
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#6Weird because on the mainframe 3270 the tab key was used to move between fields, at least that is my recollection.
+1, always thought it was an IBM standard, move with TAB and commit the form with ENTER.
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#7A great read, although I'd still like to know what IBM's reasoning for opposing this use of the Tab key was.
Is it because they didn't want Tab to be both an input and a control character? I.e. there are some cases where you can type a Tab into an input field, and there are other cases where you can't, and it's not immediately obvious which ones are which?
All the way in 2026, I would still be sympathetic to this view.
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#8Interesting, I wonder if the "TAB" argument was IBM at the time wanting screen input to work just like they did on mainframes ?
Well before DOS was a thing, the mini I programed on was using Tabs to move between the TUI fields. Once you were happy you would press RETURN to process the data. At the time, seems IBM was trying to avoid doing anything similar to any of its competition.
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#9[deleted]
Re: IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields
#10What did IBM want? Arrow keys?
Possibly, OS/2 co-development started in 1985, which is the same year IBM released the a keyboard with arrow keys.
Of course, that assumes it came from a place of corporate strategy rather than individual habit, which could have been learned from other older systems.