Here's a summary of the themes from the Hacker News discussion:
The Historical and Technical Distinction Between "Return" and "Enter"
The discussion frequently delves into the historical origins and intended technical differences between the "Return" and "Enter" keys, tracing their roots back to typewriters, teletypes, and mainframe computing.
- "Technically the difference is clear. Return is for character based protocols, teletypes, ttys, VT100, ssh and the like. Enter is for IBM 3278 style where a 'screenful' or form of inputs is buffered by the terminal and sent as a whole when the user presses enter or send." - usr1106
- "As I understand it, 'return' is a shorthand for 'carriage return' - as on typewriters, going to a new line meant returning the carriage to its original (start of line) position." - gyomu
- "Going to a new line is 'line feed', hence the combo CR/LF." - esafak
- "In line printers, a line feed moves the paper forward one line. A carriage return moves the print head back to the start of a line. You can do interesting things by making them separate commands, like bold text (overstrike) or underlining, so they were independent commands for talking to a line printer." - chowells
- "ASCII standardized on a character set containing control codes for line printers, so it included CR and LF separately." - chowells
The Blurring of "Return" and "Enter" Semantics in Modern Computing
A significant portion of the conversation highlights how, in practice, the distinct functions of "Return" and "Enter" have become blurred, particularly on modern operating systems and keyboards.
- "If applications followed the UI guidelines, Enter behaved like Return if enter didn’t make sense in the context and vice versa. Yes, that was mostly (when do you have UI to enter a multi-line text to be processed as a separate unit?) but when it mattered, return started a new line, and enter sent entered text to be processed by the application." - Someone
- "On a current Mac laptop, you can still press fn + return to get the effect of the Enter key." - robinhouston
- "On my 16" M1 MacBook Pro both Return and Fn+Return edit the filename... does it work differently on yours?" - littlecosmic
- "On at least some Macs well into the 2000s, I remember that if you had a dialog with a text field in it, Return would add a new line in the text field, but Enter would always choose the button with the thick black bar around it (typically 'OK')." - blahedo
- "Vmladenov: It was one of the things I found amusing my first time using OS X after growing up on Windows. Enter would 'enter' a folder or execute a program, while Return in Finder starts renaming the file." - vmladenov
- " FTA: Apple also added Enter to the numeric keypad, although an Enter that almost exclusively did the same thing as Return." - Someone
User Experiences and Perceived Arbitrariness of Key Assignments
Many users share personal anecdotes and express confusion or amusement regarding how "Return" and "Enter" (or their single-key equivalents) behave in different applications and on different hardware.
- "I have a faint memory of Enter creating a page break rather than a newline on a school Mac when I was a kid. Maybe that was in AppleWorks?" - etbebl
- "I wouldn’t doubt it, the way some Mac keys are completely unintuitive." - dkga
- "The only thing I really use this for is renaming files in Finder: select a file and press Enter to edit the filename." - robinhouston
- "I remember back in the day I had a demo disc where one of the installers (I think it was Theme Park?) had a prompt of 'Press return to quit, press enter to continue'. And that confused single-digit-years me for a surprising amount of time, as there wasn't, to my mind, a real difference between the two keys." - kimixa
- "It was ironic that, though we haven't seen a Return key for a long time, the down-left arrow symbol still used on many keyboards represents the motion of a carriage return. I guess there's no other symbol that would convey the meaning of Enter as well." - jasperry
Apple's Keyboard Design and User Interface Philosophy
Apple's approach to keyboards, particularly the perceived lack of a distinct "Enter" key on many of their non-numeric keypad models and the behavior of "Return" and "Fn+Return," is a recurring point of discussion, with some viewing it as intuitive and others as confusing.
- "On a current Mac laptop, you can still press fn + return to get the effect of the Enter key." - robinhouston
- "On my 16" M1 MacBook Pro both Return and Fn+Return edit the filename... does it work differently on yours?" - littlecosmic
- "Every Apple keyboard, even the iPhone I’m typing this comment on, has had a Return key. Only the Num Pad has an Enter key on Apple’s keyboards." - wpm
- "Vmladenov: It was one of the things I found amusing my first time using OS X after growing up on Windows. Enter would 'enter' a folder or execute a program, while Return in Finder starts renaming the file." - vmladenov
The Evolution of Key Symbols and Potential UI Overhaul
The discussion touches upon the symbolic representation of keys and the possibility of future UI changes that might alter or redefine these symbols.
- "It's ironic that, though we haven't seen a Return key for a long time, the down-left arrow symbol still used on many keyboards represents the motion of a carriage return. I guess there's no other symbol that would convey the meaning of Enter as well." - jasperry
- "Just wait until UI mafia from Microsoft, Apple or Google find about this. They will come with a new symbol every 3 months." - hulitu
"Enter" as a More Intuitive "Action" Key
Some commenters suggest that "Enter" is a more fitting name for initiating an action or confirming input compared to "Return."
- "To me, 'return' implies a 'go back' action (like 'backspace'), which is the opposite of 'enter', so naming the key the latter makes more sense." - userbinator
- "Keys are often replaceable; and we can put our own labels on them. Why not “Sure”? ... Make it so. Proceed. Engage. Take that! En Garde! Go! Blam! Start your engines! Yes. Forward. Eh, good enough." - mproud (This represents a playful exploration of alternative labels for an action key).