Editing Backspace (section)

==Use in computing==
===Common use===
In modern systems, the backspace key is often mapped to the delete character (0x7f in ASCII or Unicode), although the backspace key's function of deleting the character before the cursor remains.<ref name="debian">{{cite web | title=9.8 Keyboard configuration | work=Debian Policy Manual | url=http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#s9.8 | access-date=2007-07-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160310144541/http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#s9.8 | archive-date=2016-03-10 | url-status=dead }}</ref> In computers, backspace can also delete a preceding [[newline]] character, something generally inapplicable to typewriters.

The backspace key is commonly used to go back a page or up one level in graphical web or file browsers.

===^H===
{{see|Caret notation}}
Pressing the backspace key on a [[computer terminal]] would generate the [[ASCII]] code 08, BS or Backspace, a [[control code]] which would delete the preceding character. That control code could also be accessed by pressing  ({{keypress|[[Control key|Control]]}}+{{keypress|H}}, as [[H]] is the eighth letter of the [[Latin alphabet]]. Terminals which did not have the backspace code mapped to the function of moving the cursor backwards and deleting the preceding character would display the symbols '''^H''' ([[Caret notation|caret]], H) when the backspace key was pressed. Even if a terminal did interpret backspace by deleting the preceding character, the system receiving the text might not. Then, the sender's screen would show a message without the supposedly deleted text, while that text, and the deletion codes, would be visible to the recipient. This sequence is still used humorously for [[epanorthosis]] by computer literates, denoting the deletion of a pretended blunder, much like a [[strikethrough]]; in this case, however, the ^H symbol is faked by typing a regular '^' followed by typing a regular 'H'.

Example:
:''Be nice to this fool''^H^H^H^H''gentleman; he's visiting from corporate HQ.''<ref name="Jargon">[http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/writing-style.html Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style], The [[Jargon File]], version 4.4.7</ref>

====Alternatives<span class="anchor" id="^W and ^U"></span>====
An alternative sometimes seen is '''^W''', which is the shortcut to delete the previous word in the Berkeley Unix terminal [[line discipline]]. This shortcut has also made it into the insert mode of the [[Vi (text editor)|Vi]] text editor and its clone [[Vim (text editor)|Vim]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vimdoc.sourceforge.net/vimum.html | title=VIM USER MANUAL | publisher=[[FreeBSD]] | date=November 2, 2013 | access-date=May 14, 2016}}</ref>

'''^U''' deletes a line.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=vi | title=FreeBSD Man Pages; vi | publisher=Vimonline | date=March 9, 2002 | access-date=May 14, 2016}}</ref>