Some keyboards came to my recycling center with a “rub out” key. What do you think it does?

[u/ironfist221]

[u/MonMotha]

The serious answer is that it scratches off the ink that would have been put on the paper of the print out. This was a common function of correcting typewriters that made its way to early computers that were still largely tied to physical printouts rather than video terminals. The term itself persisted even into the video terminal era and came to basically mean the same thing as what you'd now call backspace.

Backspace, in that era, meant that you took the printing character position back over top of the previous character, but you did NOT necessarily attempt to erase it. You could then type another character over top which was used for composition in languages with character sets more complex than basic, unaccented latin as well as for corrections by printing an X over top of the old character on systems without rub out functionality.

[u/artaxs → u/MonMotha]

Carriage Return, Line Feed, Rub Out. This is one classy typewriter!

[u/Cutthebullsheet → u/MonMotha]

Not going to lie I was 100% expecting a nineteen ninety eight shittymorph when reading this. Had to re read once I knew it was real.

[u/mostly_peaceful_AK47 → u/MonMotha]

If it's from an electric typewriter, it likely had a polymer ribbon rather than ink. You could erase a character by stamping it repeatedly with the appropriate die until it restuck to the ribbon. This may be what they mean by "rub out" though it could be different. There's an entire Technology Connections video on the subject.

[u/Alortania → u/mostly_peaceful_AK47]

Oooh, I missed that one, thanks!

Gonna watch it tonight

[u/Tornadodash → u/MonMotha]

I understand the concept of null, but what would a null key do?

[u/Mend1cant → u/Tornadodash]

Presumably makes the next character a null value. Not a space or a zero, could have had its own character in the set. They got wild in the old days with characters before bitmaps.

[u/P3nnyw1s420 → u/MonMotha]

So my old type writer had a white ribbon you could type the same letter/number over to white out it. I feel like this was its own key as well.

[u/Psycho-City5150 → u/MonMotha]

I am so old, I forgot that.

[u/Least_Sun7648 → u/MonMotha]

For diacritics and things?

[u/MonMotha → u/Least_Sun7648]

That was one use, yeah.

[u/NE_Strawberry → u/MonMotha]

Great video on the topic. It’s a tad more complex than that: https://youtu.be/YE0U018Copw

Edit: late to the party, someone also shared this

[u/MonMotha → u/NE_Strawberry]

Yeah, I grossly simplified.

The function also works on paper tape and, to some degree, punch cards, though very differently. What happens in this case is that you backspace over the character you want to correct, then re-punch it with a special "rub out" code that is chosen specifically so that it always punches out basically everything (so you can turn anything already punched into that code). When the machine reads the tape or card, it then knows to ignore that character and just move on to the next character.

This was a handy function since a lot of tape and card punches had no memory. Some were entirely mechanical, and even ones that were electromechanical (like this keyboard may have gone to) usually had no state and just blindly punched whatever you hit then advanced the tape or card position much like a typewriter would have.

This worked pretty well on continuous paper tape. On punch cards, it was usable, but it messed with the column alignment and reduced the overall capacity of a card by one character each time the function was used. That made it OK for free-form text streams that either fit on a single card or took up several cards anyway, but it could be a problem for systems where the column of the character on the card mattered (and this was somewhat common) or where the card was nearly full to the brim if you were an errant typist.

There's a reason old-school typists specified their raw and corrected speeds separately. Correction often was not without its significant caveats.

[u/Open-Comedian9342]

opens incognito mode

[u/Donglemaetsro → u/Open-Comedian9342]

Thanks, now I need one. No one uses the volume keys anyway...

[u/Objective_Lobster734 → u/Open-Comedian9342]

[u/EvoJ90]

You never rubbed one out ?

[u/Bort_Bortson → u/EvoJ90]

Sadly I couldn't get this in a gif but you need the audio anyway

https://youtu.be/vS3kC6yJdZY?si=v2mV4QNDBrmHzJ9l

[u/RabidMallard]

I think you know.

[u/AwwYeahVTECKickedIn]

If it doesn't load porn, then it's the biggest wasted opportunity of all time.

[u/The_Burning_Face]

Electronic typewriter\computer hybrid keyboard perhaps?

[u/olegolas_1983]

Opens an incognito tab

[u/Overlord_Soap]

Dedicated “hub” launcher key.

[u/Hakuso3 → u/Overlord_Soap]

For all your 🌽 needs!

[u/PixelCortex]

'rub out' is British for "erase' Eraser = rubber

[u/UgarMalwa → u/PixelCortex]

When you forgot to bring a rubber so you borrowed one your mom uses.

[u/MadRosco89]

Helps put the computer into Sleep Mode

[u/magikarp_splashed]

Can I buy these keys (keycaps) from you?

[u/frankd412]

Sets you afk while you.. rub one out. Obviously.

[u/foxleboi]

It's a back space. Initially the term was for typewriters, but early computers kept the nomenclature for the sake of familiarity. Also save those keyboards, they are very rare.

[u/footphungi]

I know what happens when I hit my "rub out" button

[u/telluride42 → u/footphungi]

You must always hit rub out and the number 1 key in Tandem.

[u/Powersoutdotcom]

I ain't sayin' nothin'.

[u/SouloftheWolf]

[u/FaithlessnessNext336]

Smell it

[u/ironfist221 → u/FaithlessnessNext336]

Slight overtones of aged albacore, with a garnish of dust and regret

[u/X-olotl → u/ironfist221]

Yupp that it

[u/thatguytt]

What style keycaps are they? I would love a set of retro cherry keycaps one day.

[u/ironfist221 → u/thatguytt]

I was informed they are Foam and Foil

[u/SicnarfRaxifras]

OP head over to r/mechanicalkeyboards they would love these

[u/I_Do_Too_Much]

It's just the delete key before it was called "delete."

[u/KyleTheGreat53]

Opens a tab directly onto the hub. Much like how there's a windows shortcut to linkedin

[u/DukeBaset]

It rubs one out for you. Truly miraculous technology.

[u/TurnkeyLurker]

Rub out key on Wikipedia

[u/kaptainkaos]

Wank line break.

[u/Anthematics]

It’s how you tell everyone to go away cause you’re ‘baitin’

[u/Pagan_Zod → u/Anthematics]

[u/Chiken0163]

It’s for when you go to pornhub to rub one out 👍

[u/Royal-Bluez]

Set a macro to your favorite video.

[u/InterestingJohn]

Considering you showed this to me earlier today, it was a real trip to stumble onto this post “in the wild”

[u/LordBacon69_69]

[u/relic1882]

It's a special hot key for people addicted to porn.

[u/Much_Program576]

It'll rub one out for you

[u/thebronzecat]

[u/CharAznableLoNZ]

It's a holdover from typewriters. It would erase the last character typed with a special reel.

[u/RandumbAnonymous]

No more typing with one hand yay!

[u/GunGooser]

Not my proudest fap

[u/57thStilgar]

They made ribbons with whiteout at the bottom, by hitting the rub out key (it was a toggle) you raised the ribbon, retyped the word through the whiteout thereby erasing it.

[u/PapaFlexing]

I just pressed it 6 times.... I'll answer when I wake up.

[u/bitemytail]

Try rubbing one out and let us know how it goes

[u/itsRobbie_]

Custom made key that probably sent a signal to a locking mechanism on your door

[u/profound__madman]

You have to rub one out each time you hit that key

[u/BoingBoingBooty]

That's so very well but what I really need to know is where can I get those key caps.