In a
One Dev Question video,
I discussed why Alt+F4
is the hotkey for closing a window.
That explains why it's a function key rather than an alphabet key,
but why F4 specifically?
Why not
F5 or F3?
It's F4 because that was the next key available.
The hotkeys according to
CUA
were as follows:
- Alt+F10: Maximize
- Alt+F9: Minimize
- Alt+F8: Resize
- Alt+F7: Move
- Alt+F6: Switch windows within an app
- Alt+F5: Restore
- Alt+F4: Close
Most of these hotkeys died out over time due to disuse.
The ones that remain active today are
Alt+F6 and
Alt+F4.
Wait, what about F11 and F12?
Why were they skipped over?
The original IBM PC keyboard
didn't have
F11 or F12 function keys.
The function keys went up to F10.