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[–] goatboy 1 point -1 points (+0|-1) ago  (edited ago)

Have you ever considered why we even have Numlock as a key, in the first place? Some Jackass (probably Steve Wozniak) back in the day thought it would be funny to disable by default an entire section of the keyboard- just for shits and giggles. What other tool do you buy and on day one disable half its parts before you ever turn it on? WTF is that?

The Numlock key is like the original programming Easter egg. It sits in plain sight for decades, mocking everyone who has ever purchased or been forced to use a keyboard, but who never question why that key is even there in the first place. It's actually rather brilliant trolling on the part of the first personal computer designers.

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[–] ThePieAssassin 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Earlier keyboards did not have separate arrow keys like a standard keyboard. Num Lock exists so you can toggle it on when you want to use arrow keys. It has just kind of stuck around.

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[–] TheGreatNico ago 

Because the old layout didn't have dedicated directional keys, like on the venerable Model K. Pretty much every keyboard since the Model M have a set of directional keys.