Cokebottle
/kohk'bot-l/ Any very unusual character, particularly one you can't type because it isn't on your keyboard.
MIT people used to complain about the "control-meta-cokebottle" commands at
SAIL, and
SAIL people complained about the "
altmode-altmode-cokebottle" commands at
MIT.
After the demise of the
space-cadet keyboard, "cokebottle" faded away as serious usage, but was often invoked humorously to describe an (unspecified) weird or non-intuitive keystroke command.
It may be due for a second inning, however.
The
OSF/
Motif window manager, "mwm", has a reserved keystroke for switching to the default set of keybindings and behaviour. This keystroke is (believe it or not) "control-meta-bang" (see
bang).
Since the exclamation point looks a lot like an upside down Coke bottle,
Motif hackers have begun referring to this keystroke as "cokebottle".
See also
quadruple bucky.
[
Jargon File]
