backspace

thumb|A backspace key Backspace (, ) is the keyboard key that in typewriters originally pushed the carriage one position backwards. In modern computer systems, it typically moves the display cursor one position backwards, deletes the character at that position, and shifts back any text after that position by one character.

==Nomenclature== [[File:Blickensderfer model 7, 1909.jpg|thumb|An early typewriter with a backspacer[sic] key. (Blickensderfer Model 7)]] Although the term "backspace" is the traditional name of the key which steps the carriage back and/or deletes the previous character, the actual key may be labeled in a variety of waysfor example delete, erase, or with a left pointing arrow. Some very early typewriters labeled this key the backspacer key. A dedicated symbol for "backspace" exists as but its use as a keyboard label is not universal. thumb|Corona #3 typewriter. Note the oddly positioned backspace key, located off the keyboard, towards the back of the machine, on the right. Backspace is distinct from the delete key, which in a teletypewriter would punch out all the holes in punched paper tape to strike out a character, and in modern computers deletes text at or following the cursor position. Also, the delete key often works as a generic command to remove an object (such as an image inside a document, or a file in a file manager), while backspace usually does not. Full-size Mac keyboards have two keys labeled delete; a key that functions as a backspace key, and a key that functions as a delete key. Smaller Mac keyboards, such as laptop keyboards, have only a key that functions as a backspace key. Full-size PC keyboards have a backspace key (in the main section) and two delete keys (in the extended area).