HCESAR () is an obsolete Portuguese

typewriter A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...

keyboard layout A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. is the actua ...

. It was created by decreeDecreto-Lei n.º 27 868, de 17 de julho de 1937. on July 17, 1937, under the Estado Novo regime. The purpose of the layout was to place the most frequently used keys, as they were used in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

, in the center of the layout. It was common for the '' 0'' numeral to be omitted (in favour of using the uppercase '' O'' letter), and there were also some typewriters without the '' 1'' numeral (with the lowercase '' L'' being used to replace it). Also missing were symbols such as the

exclamation mark The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...

(achieved by typing an

apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

and overwriting it with a

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Era, a length or span of time * Full stop (or period), a punctuation mark Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (or rhetorical period), a concept ...

using the backspace key), the

asterisk The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

(achieved in a similar way, with lowercase '' X'' and the plus or minus sign — for eight- or six-pointed asterisks, respectively), the

number sign The symbol is known variously in English-speaking regions as the number sign, hash, or pound sign. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes including the designation of an ordinal number and as a Typographic ligature, ...

(which was achieved by some through intricate methods involving partial strokes of the

backspace Backspace () is the keyboard key that originally pushed the typewriter carriage one position backwards and in modern computer systems moves the display cursor one position backwards,"Backwards" means to the left for left-to-right languages. delete ...

key to overwrite the

equals sign The equals sign (British English, Unicode) or equal sign (American English), also known as the equality sign, is the mathematical symbol , which is used to indicate equality in some well-defined sense. In an equation, it is placed between two ...

with two

slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

es), and the

inequality sign In mathematics, an inequality is a relation which makes a non-equal comparison between two numbers or other mathematical expressions. It is used most often to compare two numbers on the number line by their size. There are several different n ...

(typing an equals sign and overwriting it with a single slash). This keyboard layout was the official layout of typewriters in public administration and in most private companies until the mid 70s, when it began to be replaced by the

AZERTY AZERTY () is a specific keyboard layout, layout for the characters of the Latin alphabet on typewriter keys and computer keyboard (computing), keyboards. The layout takes its name from the first six letter (alphabet), letters to appear on the fir ...

layout.

When both layouts were in use, HCESAR was called "''teclado nacional''" (national keyboard) and AZERTY "''teclado internacional''" (international keyboard). In the early 1980s, when the Portuguese public administration started to replace its old machines with multiuser terminal-based computers, mainly with the

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and ot ...

OS, both HCESAR and

were slowly replaced by the QWERTY layout. Today, the Portuguese use the

QWERTY QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created f ...

keyboard adapted to their language and HCESAR machines have become rare and sought after as collector's items.

References

{{Keyboard layouts Latin-script keyboard layouts 1937 in Portugal