
Macintosh Stories: Swedish Campground - EGreg
http://folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Swedish_Campground.txt
======
unicornporn
The road sign does not mean camping ground here in Sweden and it never has. It
means something like "sight", "monument" or "place of interest".

Here's is the road sign at the Swedish Transport Board:
[http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/Vag/Vagmarken/Lokaliseri...](http://www.transportstyrelsen.se/sv/Vag/Vagmarken/Lokaliseringsmarken-
for-upplysning-om-serviceanlaggningar-med-mera/Sevardhet/)

The description says: The sign indicates a sight of national interest. The
nature of the sight is mentioned in connection to the mark.

More information is available here (Google translated):
[http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&ie...](http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.faktoider.nu%2Ffornminne.html)

~~~
buro9
> It means something like "sight", "monument" or "place of interest".

It literally means "worth seeing".

It's not even "belvedere" or "tourist attraction", which tell you the type of
thing on maps in other countries.

I've always liked it for the ambiguity.

And the shape captures a simplification of early viking forts:
[http://www.planetware.com/map/trelleborg-viking-
camp-c-1-000...](http://www.planetware.com/map/trelleborg-viking-
camp-c-1-000-b-c-map-dk-trel.htm)

In that respect, the icon means tourist attraction.

~~~
unicornporn
"Worth seeing" is a better translation, thank you.

------
rogerbinns
The key I have issue with is the weird sort of smiley. Or maybe it is half a
bathtub. Or some sort of plumbing diagram. At least the command key can be
described to someone else as a clover. What on earth were people supposed to
associate the skateboard ramp with? It is the middle one in this image
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/MacBook_o...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/MacBook_option_key.JPG)

~~~
simonh
That's the international, ISO standard symbol for "Two finger salute to any
Brits that want a # key". By pressing it with the number '3' we used to be
able to type a # symbol, even though it wasn't shown on the key, because Apple
hates us.

Since Lion Apple has decided that just making our lives difficult wasn't
enough, we really don't deserve the # symbol at all, and now that combination
switches desktops. There is no keyboard combination on a standard, un-hacked
factory delivered UK Mac that produces a # symbol. Really.

I keep a text file on my desktop that contains a single # character and cut-n-
paste it when I need one.

~~~
coob
What?

Alt-3 works just fine me on a UK Mac for making a #. I have made no tweaks.

~~~
simonh
What OS are you running? What are your physical keyboard and keyboard map, UK
or US?

~~~
coob
Mavericks, but behaviour has stayed consistent since OS X Public Beta (pre-
Cheetah) for me and was probably the same on Classic.

Physical keyboards I've used have always been en_GB, internal or external.

------
mistercow
I had heard about this, but didn't know about the "taking the Apple logo in
vain" part. It's so wonderfully Steve Jobs in its being both crazy arrogant
and also probably correct.

------
ineedtosleep
Every now and then I still call the Command key the 'open apple key' which
also then shows how much I know about modern Apple computers (as in I don't
own or use one normally).

~~~
jfb
I _work at Apple_ and I still call it the Apple key.

~~~
yuhong
I think the Apple logo was added to it when ADB was introduced with the Apple
IIgs and Mac SE/II. It was eliminated in the new keyboards released in Aug
2007.

~~~
glurgh
The apple keys were on Apple /// and Apple //e keyboards, before the gs or
ADB. It's 'open apple' because there was also a filled-in 'closed apple'

[http://www.rhod.fr/images/apple3/apple3-01.jpg](http://www.rhod.fr/images/apple3/apple3-01.jpg)
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Apple_IIe...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Apple_IIe.jpg)

~~~
yuhong
Yea, that was why the Apple logo was added to the ADB keyboards. The Apple
IIgs had to be compatible with the IIe.

~~~
henderson101
Yuhong is correct, Mac 128 era keyboards have no Control key. Weird. Option
also hay the word and no logo. Command is just the clover, no text.

~~~
glurgh
Those don't have _arrow keys_ , they're pretty fascist keyboards. Part of the
motivation is to discourage programmers from writing text based interfaces for
the Mac.

------
stormbrew
What always infuriated me when looking at Apple menus on OSX, when I was a
user of it, was the icon for Option/Alt.
[http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/...](http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT1343/ks_option.gif)

I can't remember if it appeared on old mac keyboards, but it definitely
doesn't on modern ones and to me it just looks like a completely abstract
symbol. I could never remember if it was control or option.

~~~
samatman
I cannot comprehend why that symbol is not on the keyboard. There are two
words on the key, neither one of which is used on the screen. Insane.

~~~
kalleboo
It is on most the international keyboards. Why they leave it out from the US
and JP keyboard, I don't know.

------
jordanthoms
The way keyboard shortcuts are represented on Mac is one of the things which
is actually really user-unfriendly in OSX. I'm supposed to just know that an
arrow means shift, a weird line means option/alt, the command key symbol,
theres also a caret which means... something? And, to make it worse, most of
the keys don't actually have their symbols printed on them, at least with the
retina MBP.

~~~
bobthedino
That is unfortunate. I have a 2011 MBP with a UK keyboard, and all the special
keys have the symbols on them, except for Control.

The way the shortcuts are shown in menus has always seemed like a nice, clear
and space-efficient way of doing it. It seems a shame that Apple doesn't put
the symbols on all its keyboards, because without those, new users are not
going to know what the menu shortcuts are referring to.

------
emmelaich
aka
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John's_Arms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_John's_Arms)

To me it looks a little like the symbol for places of historical interest,
which is a fort / castle symbol.

~~~
jpatokal
In Finland, it _is_ the symbol for a place of (usually historical) interest,
and it's encoded in Unicode as such:

⌘ PLACE OF INTEREST SIGN (U+2318)

[http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2318/index.htm](http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2318/index.htm)

------
INTPenis
Swedish campground is a tent symbol, the first description fits better
"interesting feature or attraction". Usually it's something ancient, like a
viking burial mound or an old fortress. Real name "fornminne".

------
caycep
I must have wasted hours of my life on that website. Damn you Andy Herzfeld!

------
kristiandupont
I wonder if there are any anecdotes about Steve Jobs that aren't about him
busting in somewhere, shouting something.

~~~
axman6
Why would that be any fun?

------
EGreg
Just FYI: the original title I gave the post was "How the Mac got its control
key symbol."

~~~
hackmiester
It's an okay title, but the Mac has a different key called "control" that is
unrelated (other than being a modifier key). That's not the key this article
is talking about.

~~~
EGreg
I meant "comand key symbol"

The title was changed by a mod

------
arnarbi
The symbol means "Place of interest" in all of the Nordic countries, not a
campground. It would typically point to a museum or some heritage site. Here's
some information about the sybmology:

[http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/hans.html](http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/hans.html)

------
tricolon
Previous discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2643611](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2643611)

------
thomasfl
For me as a scandinavian it still is the museum sign. Even after all these
years as a mac user.

------
hmottestad
The swedes actually copied it from Norway.

hahahaha.

Though to be honest we actually do have it here in Norway.

------
amerika
Sweden: not only do they have the best death metal, but they have the best
icon design. It must all originate in the Futhark.

