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A few years later, both Altmode and Meta where adopted by the Lisp machine "space-cadet" keyboard.

In the early 1980s, the Sun workstation adopted the Meta modifier; the keyboard used a lozenge or filled diamond ◆ symbol.

NOW, this all leads up to my question: Riddle me this, is there a connection between the SAIL/MIT Altmode ◊, and the Sun Meta ◊◆?

Appendix A: Yes, earlier Sun keyboards labelled Meta "Left" and "Right.

Appendix B: Interesting information about the Meta modifier in X and xterm. https://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm-meta-key.html

@larsbrinkhoff is that what happens in VIM? --> ESC, :wq

@larsbrinkhoff Interesting: This xterm FAQ references the 1974 manual of the E text editor, where I find "[...] it displays a portion of this page *as if through a window*" (emphasis mine). This must be an early use of "window" for this concept, as it does not presume this meaning is as universally known as it is today.

@larsbrinkhoff
Thank you for this thread.

Yes, Type 4 is quite recognizable.
Sadly, I have lost my visual memory of what that portion of Type 3 looked like, and I definitely liked Type 3 better.

Unfortunately, I can't answer the riddle...

@larsbrinkhoff

larsbrinkhoff@mastodon.sdf.org wrote:
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On Emacs, ..., an Altmode prefix key can be used the same way as a Meta modifier key. This is still true today.
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And it is excellent that it is so.
For example, it may happen that a window manager antisocially appropriates a Meta key combination.
It also happens to me sometimes that I have only one finger available (or don't have four fingers for C-M-%).

A whole new meaning of Dennett's "anything you can do, I can do meta"...