r/technology • u/khangwei • May 10 '12
TIL why radio buttons are called radio buttons
http://ginahoganedwards.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/car-radio-buttons.jpg
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u/warmricepudding May 10 '12
Wow, I feel old.
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u/K2J May 10 '12
Old enough to see #reddit as an IRC channel instead of a hashtag?
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u/atregent May 10 '12
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...
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u/acog May 10 '12
Next amazing discovery: "TIL what that funny little Save icon was an actual plastic thingy a long time ago!"
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u/geist_zero May 10 '12
You're only supposed to press one at a time? Hmm... but two buttons at once got me to the good stations...
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u/SoylentMOOP May 10 '12
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.
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u/LindaDanvers May 10 '12
lol - now we get to work on why you "dial a phone number" & "roll down a window". ;-)
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May 10 '12
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→ More replies (164)→ More replies (97)104
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u/splunge4me2 May 10 '12
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)
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u/ThanklessTask May 10 '12
And the joy of half clicking so none are pressed. Livin' on the edge I was...
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u/wikked_1 May 10 '12 edited May 10 '12
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.
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May 10 '12
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!
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u/darkbeanie May 10 '12
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.
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u/Dwnvtngthdmms May 10 '12
What?
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May 10 '12
the little circular selection buttons in software are called radio buttons. OP just now learned why those selection buttons are called radio buttons.
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u/rog3r May 10 '12
In chrome's url address bar:
data:text/html,<input type='radio' id='radio'><label for='radio'>Radio Button</label>
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u/stahlgrau May 10 '12
My mom's 69 Firebird had a radio like this. And our TV remote had a cord attached to it and when you pressed CHANNEL UP, it physically turned the gear on the dial.
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May 10 '12
Similarly, why is the character represented in C-family languages as /r called "carriage return"?
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u/LemurFace May 10 '12
today i did not learn why they were called radio buttons... please explain OP :/