Comment by tom_
3 hours ago
Right, but if you're referring to Return as Enter, then there's no reason to refer to Enter as Return. The reason for the change is that people don't distinguish the two. If we're going to eliminate this distinction, we should do it properly!
(I've had blank looks from a few colleagues after suggesting they press the Return key (that being the term I used to refer to the Return key) - which makes me wonder what percentage of people even know that Return is the name of a key. Perhaps we should retire the term entirely.)
I would love for Apple to move from Return to Enter as the default label, indeed.
How would that work for all the software that distinguishes between them? The standard (see e.g. Mathematica) is for `return` to create a new line in a multi-line text field, and `enter` (`fn+return` on a keyboard without a dedicated key) to execute/evaluate/commit the field.
But Return and Enter are still functionally different keys on macOS. Return inserts a new line, Enter (and cmd-Return) submits forms (which works for Reddit comments, but not here for some reason).
Except in many apps Return submits forms and Shift+Return inserts a new line, and in many other places Return and Enter do the same thing, showing to me that those labels are already pretty meaningless. It feels like a transition a good design team could figure out, keeping the distinction for those who want it, but simplifying for the rest. I believe Windows calls these Enter and Numpad Enter, or something like that? That feels better to me.