How did Enter take over Return?

I feel that IBM in the 1980s was like a fable. What if all the big tech companies were just one company? IBM in 1985 was it. Eight years later, 1993, IBM fell behind Microsoft and Intel, and faced a management crisis.

Rome wasn't built in a day. The decline and fall too. This is the story of a sign of the decline and fall.

The story begins in 1971, IBM 3270 terminal. Photo:

What is the curving arrow key? Is this Enter key? No, this is "New Line" key. System/23 Datanaster manual:

When did IBM start to call the curving arrow key "Enter" key? In 1981, at IBM PC manual:

It seems like a poor choice because the same symbol has two different names in the same IBM products. The customers will be confused for no reason. How did it occur? Look at the IBM PC keyboard:

The keycaps and layout (except color and printing) are the same with System/23 Datamaster keyboard:

The IBM PC keyboard was made by modifying the System/23 Datamaster keyboard.

Look at "Enter" key of System/23 Datamaster. Yes, it is printed "Enter." It looks very odd. If the designer of the IBM PC intended to place "Enter" key there, it is already there! Why went out of his way to rewrite it and cause confusion?

Here is a reasonable explanation: The desginer intended to place "New Line" key there. He probably gave an order "Replace New Line with Enter" or something like that. The order was misunderstood. The operator replaced the symbol, not key! The error was overlooked and the IBM PC shipped.

What I've told so far isn't about the decline and fall yet.

PC is an extremely complex product. Errors are inevitable. If it's just a matter of revising the manual, it won't cost much. But IBM didn't. This is a sign.

"New Line" key was a good idea because "Carriage Return" and "Line Feed" keys were an awkward legacy of teletypes. In contrast, the current Enter key is a poor idea. It still makes confusion about the semantics of Shift+Enter. In messengers, does it mean "Send" or "New Line"? It depends on which messenger is used. We are still caught up in the collapse of the empire.