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alt

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Financial, Acronyms, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.04 sec.
alt
(engineering)
altitude
(character)alt - /awlt/ 1. The alt modifier key on many keyboards, including the IBM PC. On some keyboards and operating systems, (but not the IBM PC) the alt key sets bit 7 of the character generated.

See bucky bits.

2. The "clover" or "Command" key on a Macintosh; use of this term usually reveals that the speaker hacked PCs before coming to the Mac (see also feature key). Some Mac hackers, confusingly, reserve "alt" for the Option key (and it is so labelled on some Mac II keyboards).

3. (Obsolete PDP-10; often "ALT") An alternate name for the ASCII ESC character (Escape, ASCII 27), after the keycap labelling on some older terminals; also "altmode" (/awlt'mohd/). This character was almost never pronounced "escape" on an ITS system, in TECO or under TOPS-10, always alt, as in "Type alt alt to end a TECO command" or "alt-U onto the system" (for "log onto the [ITS] system"). This usage probably arose because alt is easier to say.

4. One of the Usenet newsgroup hierarchies. It was founded by John Gilmore and Brian Reid. The alt hierarchy is special in that anyone can create new groups here without going though the normal voting proceduers, hence the regular appearence of new groups with names such as "alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork".


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The study points to a significant convergence of the prime, Alt A or low doc and subprime mortgage broker communities.
Variety keeps finance products moving, survey says by Real Estate Weekly
of Value of permits permits RESIDENTIAL New Buildings 21 $3,139,600 Additions & Alt.
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I recently upgraded to Windows XP and one of my favorite "cheat sheet" aids is missing--those underlined letters in toolbar commands that, when pressed in combination with the Alt key, activate the command.
Show the underlined letters in toolbar commands by Zarowin, Stanley / Journal of Accountancy
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