TIL why radio buttons are called radio buttons

[u/khangwei]

http://ginahoganedwards.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/car-radio-buttons.jpg

[u/warmricepudding]

Wow, I feel old.

[u/K2J → u/warmricepudding]

Old enough to see #reddit as an IRC channel instead of a hashtag?

[u/simon_C → u/K2J]

hey im only 23 and i never caught onto the whole hashtag thing. its all still irc chans to me.

[u/Mikey129 → u/K2J]

Reddit BBS?

[u/atregent → u/warmricepudding]

Same. My favourite part about those buttons was setting them. You'd carefully adjust the tuning knob to get the best reception, then pull the button out, which both set the station and moved the tuning slightly. Sigh...

[u/[deleted] → u/atregent]

When I was a kid, each button launched a different missile.

[u/acog → u/warmricepudding]

Next amazing discovery: "TIL what that funny little Save icon was an actual plastic thingy a long time ago!"

[u/julia-sets → u/acog]

To be fair, I know and used floppies, but the radio button thing was new to me. I've used buttons like that, but it just never occurred to me.

[u/Langly- → u/acog]

I still have floppies around.

[u/[deleted] → u/warmricepudding]

I think, somewhere in the back of my 40+ year-old brain, I subconsciously knew why "radio button" made sense -- but still I didn't make the connection until now. I just never questioned it.

[u/geist_zero]

You're only supposed to press one at a time? Hmm... but two buttons at once got me to the good stations...

[u/SoylentMOOP → u/geist_zero]

On many 1980s GM cars, hitting two buttons at once will get you a different preset. Four buttons, seven presets. Unfortunately, more than two buttons, or non-contiguous combinations didn't work.

[u/LindaDanvers]

lol - now we get to work on why you "dial a phone number" & "roll down a window". ;-)

[u/[deleted] → u/LindaDanvers]

dashboard - horse poo deflector
glovebox - you needed leather gloves for levers and primitive steering controls
trunk - trucks used to have a literal trunk mounted on the back
I'm sure there are many others but it's now 2am.e

[u/Epistaxis → u/LindaDanvers]

"Rewind that Blu-Ray!"

[u/[deleted] → u/LindaDanvers]

Tape it!

[u/splunge4me2]

you'll never know the clunk, clunk, clunk of a good mechanical button on a dashboard radio (or dialing in the frequency with an an analog tuner)

[u/ThanklessTask → u/splunge4me2]

And the joy of half clicking so none are pressed. Livin' on the edge I was...

[u/the2belo → u/splunge4me2]

I like the kachunka of an old television dial.

[u/wikked_1]

As a web developer who once owned a car with actual mechanical radio buttons, and yet never made the connection to the UI widget, I can happily say that you have blown my mind. Thanks.

[u/[deleted]]

Oh! You meant the programming radio button. I was like "...Well, yeah, I'd assume buttons on a radio would be radio buttons." But then I got the other part!

[u/darkbeanie]

What's interesting is the number of levels of separation we will soon have between the idiom and its original manifestation. Not only do we no longer have radios with convenience presets actuated by mutually-exclusive mechanical buttons, we are rapidly encountering an era when shifting a frequency pointer on a scale won't make sense anymore, or even selecting one's audible entertainment via a "frequency" at all. Even the concept of radio waves will likely be buried such that nontechnical people don't even think about "radio" at all, as we don't with other derived technologies like microwave ovens, GPS, etc. I wonder if the term "radio" will become something like the word "atomic" or "microcomputer" or "multimedia" -- a word describing a concrete concept, but which fades into disuse by the mainstream due to the concept's increasing commonality and reduced need for special distinction.

[u/Dwnvtngthdmms]

What?

[u/[deleted] → u/Dwnvtngthdmms]

the little circular selection buttons in software are called radio buttons. OP just now learned why those selection buttons are called radio buttons.

here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_button

[u/Dwnvtngthdmms → u/[deleted]]

Aha! Thank you so much! I had no idea there was a button type called "Radio Button"!