Why didn’t they just make one Clear and make another Backspace? The concept of erasing the last character had been in typewriters for a while by then, and this is far more obvious. Maybe erasing a single digit in earlier software/hardware was much harder than just clearing it all?
Why didn’t they just make one Clear and make another Backspace? The concept of erasing the last character had been in typewriters for a while by then, and this is far more obvious. Maybe erasing a single digit in earlier software/hardware was much harder than just clearing it all?
Because calculators used to use paper, and clear entry basically invalidated the line.
This kept the same interface for the really old paper calculator users.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/226285302528
http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/busicom_141-pf.html the granddaddy of calculators, and the one the Intel 4004 processor was designed for.
Some do that, too. Unfortunately the weight of tradition seems to enforce the C/CE/AC key preference.
Even the iphone built in OS calculator has the “AC” button unless you manually tap the entry window, then you get a backspace.