Why do older keyboard (and Mac keyboards to my knowledge) use "Return" in place of "Enter"?

Question

Personally I just think "Enter" is more fitting when you consider its uses for the average computer user. I have some ideas as to why "Return" was used, but I'd really like some people who've been using computers for decades to explain.

Answer 1

The keyboard for the PC used a lot of the same placement and conventions as typewriters used. It was easier for people in the workforce to make the change from one to the other with some of the things in the new equipment being familiar. The workers had to change from typewriters to PCs literally overnight, and without any training, as colleges hadn't caught up to the new technology with their curriculum yet. Of course, nobody had these at home yet (almost nobody), and there were no electronics stores selling them to individuals, etc. Training was an add-on cost that most companies didn't want to provide for their workers. I know: I was on both sides, having been a production typist for a large corporation and then a sales person for Harris Lanier, which sold some of the first commercial PCs to businesses.

Answer 2

From the Wiki: "The return key is often also referred to as (and even marked as) the enter key and it usually performs the same function as the enter key, but in some applications (mainly page layout, word processing and in typewriting) it's the one that operates like the carriage return key from which it originates. It typically has an arrow pointing down and left, which is the symbol for carriage return."



AND



"On some Macintosh keyboards, the Return and Enter key are two different keys. The Return key is the usual key, while the Enter key is positioned at the lower right of the numeric key pad. For example, while using the text tool in Adobe Photoshop, the Return key produces a new line while the Enter key ends editing mode. In most software, however, they behave the same."

Answer 3

The return key is the equivalent to the carriage return on a typewriter as far as text input is concerned and it is comparable to the enter key because it returns keyboard data and control to a program that is awaiting keyboard input.

Answer 4

Its from the typewriter days. Return was used to move you to next line (thats what th picture is under Enter)

Just with computers there is far more uses for Enter then just a line return.

Answer 5

The term 'Return' means to return the cursor (blinking dot/bar on your screen indicating the starting point to type) to its starting position on the left.



Back when computers didn't have Mac OS or Windows, we used to use DOS and Unix where we would have a command prompt. Something like:



C:\>_



The underscore was the cursor and still is if you've seen DOS and no body cared about a new line, all they wanted to do was send the command for processing after it was typed and return the cursor to its starting position.