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Signal · When? · it follows

Element 3

3●›
H
Hold

Say now, and keep saying it.

long-press · held key · dwell

First known

Opened

1962Spacewar!: the ship accelerates for as long as the blast lever is held. Graetz, MIT PDP-1.

DECUS Proceedings 1962. Long-press as touch's second button has no dated source.

Someone opened the dated document itself. The source.

  • ReadingValue

Specimen № 3 — operate freely

Press and hold a whole breath. Release early to rewind.

Fig. 3 — Long Tap

000 readings · idle

Anatomy of Long Tap

  1. 01Press
    You
    Touches and stays.
    It
    Starts counting, and shows it.
  2. 02Peek
    You
    Holds about half a breath.
    It
    Offers a preview, without committing.
  3. 03Commit
    You
    Holds the whole duration.
    It
    Does the thing, or opens the menu.
  4. 04Retreat
    You
    Lets go early.
    It
    Runs the animation backwards, so the intent is visibly undone.

Phases light as the specimen above registers them. The dark ones are the ones it can't sense.

Lineage

Press and hold came from stylus and touch devices, which have no second button. Android and iOS made it the touchscreen's right click. Apple's 3D Touch, in 2015, briefly tried pressure instead of time.

Descends from
Long Tap
Gave rise to

Under delegation

Mutates

  1. Survives
  2. Mutates
  3. Dissolves

Long tap turned waiting into a channel. Agents need that channel: a way to say "not yet, let me look" before an action runs. Hold to see what the agent is about to do, and let go early to back out. Duration becomes the space where the person keeps the veto.

Becomes

Down the Signal column

  1. it reactsPPress
  2. it followsHHold
  3. it targetsOOpen
  4. it remembersScSchedule
  5. it connectsNNotify
  6. it guessesWWake
  7. it actsIInterrupt

Read down and Press gets heavier: each step is the same act, on a machine that keeps track of more.

Bodies

The act stays put while the hardware changes. These are some of the forms Hold takes.

  • long-press
  • held key
  • dwell

From the 2021 table

These were tiles of their own. On this table each is a form of Hold, and each old address lands here.

  • Hold SteadyIsotopeThe same act in another body.
  • Long TapIsotopeThe same act in another body.Operate ↑