Double Bucky

What Does Double Bucky Mean?

The phrase “double bucky” in IT refers to pressing two separate modifying keys on a device keyword simultaneously. The most common combination is the control key and the “Alt” or branded modifier key next to it on most PC keyboards.

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Techopedia Explains Double Bucky

The original emergence of the phrases “bucky” and “double bucky” is attributed to Niklaus Wirth a.k.a. “Bucky,” a computer scientist active at the University of California Berkeley in the early 1960s, and at Stanford University from 1963 to 1967.

The term “double bucky” comes from the practice of including these modifier keys on a keyboard to enable more user events without extending the keyboard to include a lot more keys. For example, using control and a numeric key, or control plus “alt” and a numeric key, users can do all sorts of things like change screen format, quick boot a system, or change wireless settings. The eighth bit of a seven-bit ASCII I character is called the “bucky bit” and the “bucky” keys are used to manipulate this.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…