Button (computing)

In computing, the term button (sometimes known as a command button or push button) refers to any graphical control element that provides the user a simple way to trigger an event, like searching for a query at a search engine, or to interact with dialog boxes, like confirming an action.

Overview

A typical button is a rectangle or rounded rectangle, wider than it is tall, with a descriptive caption in its center. The most common method of pressing a button is clicking it with a pointer controlled by a mouse, but other input such as keystrokes can be used to execute the command of a button. A button is not however always restricted to a rectangular shape. The sole requirement of button interaction is that the user can execute a command by a click action. Thus pictures and background areas can be programmed as buttons. When pressed, in addition to performing a predetermined task, buttons often undergo a graphical change to mimic a mechanical button being depressed.

Depending on the circumstance, buttons may be designated to be pushed only once and execute a command, while others may be used to receive instant feed back and may require the user to click more than once to receive the desired result. Other buttons are designed to toggle behavior on and off like a check box. These buttons will show a graphical clue (such as staying depressed after the mouse is released) to indicate the state of the option.

Button

In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener, now most commonly made of plastic, but also frequently of metal, wood or seashell, which secures two pieces of fabric together. In archaeology, a button can be a significant artifact. In the applied arts and in craft, a button can be an example of folk art, studio craft, or even a miniature work of art.

Buttons are most often attached to articles of clothing but can also be used on containers such as wallets and bags. However, buttons may be sewn onto garments and similar items exclusively for purposes of ornamentation. Buttons serving as fasteners work by slipping through a fabric or thread loop, or by sliding through a buttonhole. Other types of fastenings include zippers, Velcro and magnets.

History

Buttons and button-like objects used as ornaments or seals rather than fasteners have been discovered in the Indus Valley Civilization during its Kot Yaman phase (c. 2800–2600 BCE) as well as Bronze Age sites in China (c. 2000–1500 BCE), and Ancient Rome.

Button (poker)

In poker, the buck or dealer button is a marker used to indicate the player who is dealing or, in casino games with a house dealer, the player who acts last on that deal (who would be the dealer in a home game). The term button is also used for a variety of plastic discs, or lammers, used by casinos to mark the status of players.

History

When poker became a popular saloon game in the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, the integrity of the players was unreliable and the honor codes that had regulated gambling for centuries became inadequate. Because the dealer has the greatest opportunity to cheat (by manipulating the specific cards that players receive, or by inspecting the dealt cards), the players would take turns in this role. To avoid arguments about whose turn it was to deal, the person who was next due to deal would be given a marker. This marker moves clockwise around the table after each hand. A knife was a common object used as such a marker, and the marker became generally known as a buck as an abbreviated reference to the buck's horn that formed the handle of many knives at that time.

Musical keyboard

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the interval of an octave. Depressing a key on the keyboard causes the instrument to produce sounds, either by causing a hammer to mechanically strike a string or tine (piano, electric piano, clavichord); pluck a string (harpsichord); open a valve to let air flow through a pipe (pipe organ or accordion); or strike a bell (carillon in a church tower). On electric and electronic keyboards, depressing a key connects one or several circuits (Hammond organ, digital piano, synthesizer, MIDI controller keyboard) which causes sounds to be produced. A pedal keyboard is a keyboard used with a pipe organ or theatre organ which is played with the feet. Since the most commonly encountered keyboard instrument is the piano, the keyboard layout is often referred to as the "piano keyboard".

Podcasts:

PLAYLIST TIME:

Latest News for: button (computing)

Edit

Splice CEO Kakul Srivastava on where to draw hard lines around AI in music

The Verge 24 Mar 2025
What they don’t love is push-button creation ... In fact, when we launched Create, the biggest button in the Create experience was the feedback button ... They do not want push button creativity.
Edit

Restored 1957 Studebaker Parkview to bow at World of Wheels

Canoe 22 Mar 2025
Story continues below ... Sign Up ... For power, Miller opted for a 5.3-litre LS engine but with twin turbochargers and Holley Sniper fuel injection and Holley Terminator computer controller ... With that buttoned up, the body went back to Levair for painting ... .
Edit

Canon-McMillan set to use new crisis alert system

Observer-Reporter 20 Mar 2025
If I’m a teacher, I know as soon as I press that button help is on the way.” ... “As soon as the button was hit, in two seconds the entire internal alert system was on, desktop computers had the alert, the strobes were flashing.
Edit

How to Set SSD as Boot Drive in BIOS

PC World 14 Mar 2025
2️⃣ Second, you need to install the new SSD on your computer and initialize it before cloning ... Screwdriver (to open your computer case if needed) ... Turn off your computer and unplug all power cables ... LenovoF2 (or Fn + F2)F12 (or Novo Button).
Edit

Critics Don’t Hold Back After Seeing The Electric State, Calling The Russo Brothers’ Flick ‘Derivative’ And ‘Soulless’

Cinema Blend 13 Mar 2025
The Electric State's sci-fi is muddled and empty, smashed together with references to our '90s for seemingly no reason other than to press a certain demographic's nostalgia button.
Edit

OpenAI takes on rivals with new Responses API, Agents SDK

InfoWorld 12 Mar 2025
“The computer use tool is operator in the API, but ... This can read and interpret what’s on the computer’s display, type text, move the cursor, click buttons, and switch between windows and applications.
  • 1
×