Editing 477: Typewriter

{{comic
| number    = 477
| date      = September 17, 2008
| title     = Typewriter
| image     = typewriter.png
| titletext = Somewhere in the world, my actual grandmothers are reading this and angrily exclaiming that I never write even malformed thank-you notes. DEAR GRANDMOMS: I AM SORRY! YOU ARE WONDERFUL PEOPLE AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING LOVE reddit.com RANDALL.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Longer but still quite brief.}}
[[Randall]] is writing a letter to his grandmother on a typewriter, thanking her for taking him (and at least one other person) on a trip. However, due to a habit he's developed from using a computer for so long, Randall inadvertently litters the letter with website URLs. As if through muscle memory, Randall periodically attempts to check the latest news by pressing a combination involving the Tab key, typing the URL of a specific website, then pressing a combination using the Tab key again. Depending on what email program he normally uses, he might have attempted to press Alt+Tab on the typewriter to switch to his web browser (if he was accustomed to using stand-alone email program) or Ctrl-Tab to switch to another browser tab (if he normally used a web-based email program). The key combination that, on a computer, would satisfy his somewhat hyperactive impulses, is dramatically different on a typewriter where that key combination instead inserts a tab character. So, he types a tab character, URL, and second tab character right in the middle of his letter.

The title text references that Randall's real grandmothers, upon seeing this comic, might feel bad that he doesn't write to them at all (not even poorly-written letters like in the comic). To remedy this, he writes a brief thank you note to his grandmothers which includes one tab-URL-tab combination.

==Transcript==
:[A typewriter is shown with the following letter in it:
:Dear Grandmom,     cnn.com
:     I hope this     reddit.com     letter
:finds you well.     I wanted to say I
:really     news.google.com     enjoyed the
:trip you     boingboing.net     took us on,
:and am looking forward to     bbc.co.uk
:visiting later     fivethirtyeight.com
:this year.
:                           Love,     slashdot.org
:                           Your grandson,]
:I didn't realize how bad my habit of tabbing to Firefox every few seconds to check news sites had gotten until I tried writing on a typewriter.

==Trivia==
This is the first xkcd comic featuring [[Nate Silver]].

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-[[Randall]] is writing a letter to his grandmother on a typewriter, thanking her for taking him and at least one other person on a trip. However, due to a habit he's developed from using a computer for so long, Randall inadvertently litters the letter with chunks of blank space followed by website URLs. As if through muscle memory, Randall periodically attempts to check the latest news by pressing a combination involving the Tab key, typing the URL of a specific website, then pressing a combination using the Tab key again.
+{{incomplete|Longer but still quite brief.}}
+[[Randall]] is writing a letter to his grandmother on a typewriter, thanking her for taking him (and at least one other person) on a trip. However, due to a habit he's developed from using a computer for so long, Randall inadvertently litters the letter with website URLs. As if through muscle memory, Randall periodically attempts to check the latest news by pressing a combination involving the Tab key, typing the URL of a specific website, then pressing a combination using the Tab key again. Depending on what email program he normally uses, he might have attempted to press Alt+Tab on the typewriter to switch to his web browser (if he was accustomed to using stand-alone email program) or Ctrl-Tab to switch to another browser tab (if he normally used a web-based email program). The key combination that, on a computer, would satisfy his somewhat hyperactive impulses, is dramatically different on a typewriter where that key combination instead inserts a tab character. So, he types a tab character, URL, and second tab character right in the middle of his letter.
-On a computer, the ''Ctrl+Tab'' keyboard combination usually switches to between browser tabs within a window, such as between two {{w|Firefox}} tabs, while ''Alt+Tab'' switches between windows. However, there is only a simple ''Tab'' key on an old-fashioned typewriter. Pressing Tab there doesn't switch to another screen, it just moves the platen (the typewriter's cursor, so to speak) to the next tab stop, leaving a wide space before the next typing on the same piece of paper. So the key combination that would satisfy Randall's somewhat hyperactive impulses on a computer is dramatically different on a typewriter, where that key instead causes movement of the platen. So, he hits the tab key, types a URL, and hits the tab key again right in the middle of his letter. It also shows Randall's love of news and information websites.
+The title text references that Randall's real grandmothers, upon seeing this comic, might feel bad that he doesn't write to them at all (not even poorly-written letters like in the comic). To remedy this, he writes a brief thank you note to his grandmothers which includes one tab-URL-tab combination.
-The title text references that Randall's real grandmothers, upon seeing this comic, might feel bad that he doesn't write to them at all — not even poorly-written letters like in the comic. To remedy this, he writes a brief thank you note to his grandmothers... which also includes one ''Ctrl/Alt+Tab'' combination.
-==List of websites==
-{| class="wikitable"
-|-
-! Website address
-! Name of website
-! Description
-|-
-| [http://www.cnn.com/ cnn.com]
-| CNN
-| News website
-|-
-| [http://www.reddit.com/ reddit.com]
-| Reddit
-| Discussion forums
-|-
-| [http://www.news.google.com/ news.google.com]
-| Google News
-| Collection of news websites
-|-
-| [http://www.boingboing.net/ boingboing.net]
-| BoingBoing
-| Blogging
-|-
-| [http://www.bbc.co.uk/ bbc.co.uk]
-| BBC
-| British Broadcasting Corporation's website
-|-
-| [http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ fivethirtyeight.com]
-| FiveThirtyEight
-| News, mainly politics
-|-
-| [http://www.slashdot.org/ slashdot.org]
-| Slashdot
-| News and forums
-|}
 ==Transcript==
-:[A typewriter is shown with the following letter in it:]
+:[A typewriter is shown with the following letter in it:
-<pre>
+:Dear Grandmom,     cnn.com
-Dear Grandmom,    cnn.com
+:     I hope this     reddit.com     letter
-     I hope this    reddit.com    letter
+:finds you well.     I wanted to say I
-finds you well.  I wanted to say I
+:really     news.google.com     enjoyed the
-really    news.google.com    enjoyed the
+:trip you     boingboing.net     took us on,
-trip you    boingboing.net    took us on,
+:and am looking forward to     bbc.co.uk
-and am looking forward to    bbc.co.uk
+:visiting later     fivethirtyeight.com
-visiting later    fivethirtyeight.com
+:this year.
-this year.
+:                           Love,     slashdot.org
-                 Love,    slashdot.org
+:                           Your grandson,]
-                 Your grandson,
-</pre>
-:[Caption below the panel:]
 :I didn't realize how bad my habit of tabbing to Firefox every few seconds to check news sites had gotten until I tried writing on a typewriter.
@@ Line 75: / Line 33: @@
 [[Category:Comics featuring Randall Munroe]]
-[[Category:Comics featuring Nate Silver]]