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)