cokebottle

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cokebottle

/kohk'bot-l/ Any very unusual character, particularly one you can't type because it isn't on your keyboard. MIT people used to complain about the "control-meta-cokebottle" commands at SAIL, and SAIL people complained about the "altmode-altmode-cokebottle" commands at MIT. After the demise of the space-cadet keyboard, "cokebottle" faded away as serious usage, but was often invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or non-intuitive keystroke command. It may be due for a second inning, however. The OSF/Motif window manager, "mwm", has a reserved keystroke for switching to the default set of keybindings and behaviour. This keystroke is (believe it or not) "control-meta-bang" (see bang). Since the exclamation point looks a lot like an upside down Coke bottle, Motif hackers have begun referring to this keystroke as "cokebottle".

See also quadruple bucky.

[Jargon File]

(1995-01-04)