the.com/tab
the brilliant idea that one keystroke could leap forward or quietly run up your debt
means A tab is a small projecting flap, marker, or label — and also a running record of what you owe, the keyboard key that jumps the cursor along, or, in computing, one of the panels you switch between.
from From the noun "tab," which surfaced in English around the early 17th century as a word for a small flap or tag, probably a variant of "tag" (and possibly nudged by "tail"). Its origin is honestly a bit murky — lexicographers flag it as uncertain. The "bar bill" sense ("put it on my tab") grew from the idea of a tab as a small tally or record kept on the side, an Americanism of the 19th century. The typewriter "tab key" is short for "tabulator," from Latin "tabula," a table or list — because the key was built to line text up into neat columns. The browser "tab" simply borrowed the look of those little filing-folder flaps you flick between.
- keyboard veteran
- Predates computers, born on typewriters in the 1900s
- hidden character
- Encoded as ASCII 9, an invisible whitespace ghost
- holy war
- Tabs versus spaces splits programmers into rival tribes
- bar slang
- Running a tab means trusting drinkers to pay later
- browser plague
- Average user juggles dozens of open, forgotten tabs
browser tab — chrome, firefox, safari feature that lets you open multiple web pages in one window, invented by internet explorer in 2004
guitar tab — numbered notation system showing which frets to play on strings, standard notation alternative used for rock and folk music
tab key — keyboard key that indents text or moves cursor between form fields, universal feature on all computer keyboards
tab soda — coca-cola's diet cola brand launched in 1963, still sold globally as a low-calorie alternative