With only 128K of RAM, Macintosh memory was a scarce resource. The design decision by the Macintosh team to burn the cut, copy, and paste commands into ROM.The “x” for “cut” suggests a pair of open scissors, “c” is the beginning of “copy” and “v” suggests “insert here.” The keys are clustered, easy to access, and easy to memorize. The thoughtful choice by Apple to use Command plus x, c, and v to represent cut, copy and paste.The ⌘ symbol was selected because, in Scandinavia, the symbol denoted a “point of interest” in tourism signage. Steve Jobs had worried about the impact of overuse of the Apple icon and the potential for brand dilution. The introduction of the command key (⌘) on the Macintosh to replace the Apple key shortly before the launch of the Mac.No command line coding required – thank you! This is where the user interacts with an object directly, using a real-world paradigm such as “touching” to select a character string or an object and then performs an operation such as “dragging” to generate an immediate result. This crucial shift enabled what is known in GUI circles as “direct manipulation”. In contrast to traditional command line syntax, this innovation meant the user could identify the object to be manipulated first and then specify the action. Expansion of the command line paradigm to include “verb-object” along with the earlier “object-verb” format.The clipboard was commercially implemented by Apple – which had staff previously employed by PARC – in their Lisa and Macintosh systems in 19, respectively. Work on the clipboard was initiated at SRI and continued at Xerox PARC. This meant cut, copy and paste could work reliably across applications without a formal standard. The invention of the clipboard and its implementation as an operating system function.The nearly universal adoption of today’s cut, copy and paste keyboard shortcuts is the result of a combination of breakthrough innovations and pragmatic computer design. Hundreds of millions-perhaps billions-of users around the world have the keystrokes command/control x, c, and v encoded in their muscle memories to perform cut, copy and paste operations. Contributed by Bill Narin, Global Business Development, IEEE-ISTO

Apple cut and paste