Aren't alt and option the same thing, or have I been missing some nuance for several decades?

BTW, I think ⌥ is supposed to look like scales, representing "option." That's how I've always remembered it, anyway.

That's interesting. I always assumed it was a single pole double throw switch.

Interesting, I always thought ⌥ was a 3 dimensional T laying flat (and the black is the shadow).

the option key is supposed to resemble a path and when you press it you are taking the alternate path(also called the alt key)

Actually, now that I look at it afresh doesn't it remind you of a railroad switch. Can't believe I never noticed that before.

It's the electricity symbol for a switch.

Gotcha, thanks. Seems to be a near variant of a SPDT toggle switch, Single Pole Double Throw. Can't tell if it is technically an electrical symbol or an electronic symbol.

http://www.rapidtables.com/electric/electrical_symbols.htm (fifth symbol down)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_symbol#Switches (second symbol along)

Yeah and I hit fn instead of ctrl on macs because I grew up using PC keyboards.

It's worse when you alternate between Apple's larger USB keyboard with numeric keypad (which has wider Control, Option, and Command keys) and the laptop keyboard (which jams in a fn key before those three), and your pinky gets some form of PTSD from hitting the wrong button!

> They have Function, Control, Alt, Option, Command and Shift.

And modifier chords (option-cmd, shift-cmd, option-shift-cmd). If you used all combinations you'd have 64 different modifier combinations. Insanity!