Quadruple Bucky

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What Does Quadruple Bucky Mean?

Quadruple bucky refers to using a series of four modifier keyboard
keys all at once, to perform some type of meta-command on the keyboard. Quadruple
bucky is based on the term “double bucky” that refers to pressing two modifying
keys at the same time.

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Techopedia Explains Quadruple Bucky

Programmers or others might refer to special command keys on a keyboard as bucky keys. For example, pressing Control and Alt at the same time is an example of a double bucky.

Quadruple bucky is a little bit more complex. One use of the term is for a Stanford or MIT keyboard setup where users would press four shift keys, or the control and meta-keys on either side of the keyboard, simultaneously while typing a fifth character. The obvious physical challenges of this practice make it fairly obscure and seldom used. There is also the usage of the control, meta, hyper and super keys on an MIT “space cadet” keyboard, a keyboard for MIT LISP machines that was equipped with seven shift keys.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret 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 IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.