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Comment by underwater | Hacker News Reader

I've found the OSX alternates between being overly childish (the shiny dock) and hiding functionality behind overly complex "shortcuts". You want to copy a section of the screen to the clipboard? Why, that's ⌘^⇧4! Never mind that my keyboard lacks symbols on the keys, so I'm left guessing what rubbish like ⌥ means.

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That command has been around since OS 9 and probably before. Have similar commands with the same level of utility (copying a selectable section of the screen) and the same keystroke been around in Windows/X11 for that length of time?

Would you also suggest that vi change it's commands so that they're easier to use?

Historical inertia matters, especially with muscle memory things like key combos.

You can keep the old one while putting new ones in place. I'm sure no one is jumping at the opportunity to reuse ⌘^⇧4 once Apple moves away from it.

I don't use Apples much but I'm pretty sure that the keyboard has a ⌥ symbol on the option button.

It hasn't since the days of the translucent frame with white keys.

That functionality is by no means hidden behind the keyboard shortcut. You can just as easily use /Applications/Utilities/Grab.app (whose app icon is a window behind scissors) and choose the "Selection" option from the "Capture" menu.

Interesting. I've been using OS X for about six months and never found that. I tried several permutations of "screen shot", "screen capture", etc. in Spotlight without finding it.

The application looks to be separate from the OS X core screenshot feature; it has completely different shortcuts, styling and functionality.

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