Direction keys are a group of buttons on a typical desktop computer keyboard that are used to move the screen cursor in a certain direction, among other functions.
Also called arrow keys, cursors or cursor keys.
They are usually located on the lower right side of the keyboard, next to the numeric keypad (if there is one) or under the edit keys. There are four buttons with arrows pointing up, down, right and left.
The arrow keys are used to move through documents and for computer games. Before the mouse, the arrow keys were the main way to move on the screen.
On extended keyboards, the direction keys are duplicated on the numeric part of the keyboard (numpad). If Num Lock is off, those keys can be used as direction keys, but if it’s on, those keys are used as numbers.
The inverted T-shape for these key layouts was popularized on the Digital Equipment Corporation LK201 keyboard from 1982.
History of the direction keys
LK201 keyboard from 1982 that popularized the inverted T layout of the direction keys.
Originally, before the popularization of the mouse, the arrow keys were the primary method of moving the cursor on the screen.
The use of directional keys for games started to become popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In fact in many games it was possible to use the WASD keys as a second set of directional keys for convenience, for a second player, etc. Alternatives to this distribution are ESDF, DCAS, IJKL, IJKM, among others.
The classic inverted-T key layout, as shown here, was introduced in 1982 along with Digital Equipment Corporation’s LK201 keyboard.
Some 8-bit Commodore computers had two keys instead of four, and addresses were selected with the Shift key.
The original Apple Macintosh computer did not have arrow keys.
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