A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions. On some keyboards/computers, function keys may have default actions, accessible on power-on.
Function keys on a terminal may either generate short fixed sequences of characters, often beginning with the escape character (ASCII 27), or the characters they generate may be configured by sending special character sequences to the terminal. On a standard computer keyboard, the function keys may generate a fixed, single byte code, outside the normal ASCII range, which is translated into some other configurable sequence by the keyboard device driver or interpreted directly by the application program. Function keys may have (abbreviations of) default actions printed on/besides them, or they may have the more common "F-number" designations.
Read more about Function Key: Function Key Schemes On Various Computer Keyboards, Action of Function Keys On Various Programs, Operating Systems
Famous quotes containing the words function and/or key:
“The mother’s and father’s attitudes toward the child correspond to the child’s own needs.... Mother has the function of making him secure in life, father has the function of teaching him, guiding him to cope with those problems with which the particular society the child has been born into confronts him.”
—Erich Fromm (1900–1980)
“This is the Key of the Kingdom:
In that Kingdom is a city;”
—Unknown. This Is the Key (l. 1–2)