As Wikipedia states, the numeric keypad, number pad or short numpad
provides calculator-style efficiency for entering numbers. The numpad’s keys are digits from 0 to 9, addition (+), subtraction (−), multiplication (×) and division (÷) symbols, …
I wonder now why for instance when we press the − key on our numpad a hyphen-minus (Unicode character U+002D
and HTML symbol -
) gets displayed rather than the “correct” minus sign (Unicode character U+2212
and HTML symbol −
).
The same thing applies also to the +, × and ÷ keys;
- the + yields not a full-width plus (
+
), but rather a standard+
sign, - the × prints an asterisk (
*
) and no multiplication sign (×
) - and the ÷ displays a slash (
/
) rather than the suspected obelus (÷)
… although all of this symbols are shown on the keyboard keys as you can see in the following German computer keyboard illustration from commons.wikimedia.org:
Is there any technical reason for this behavior – as @CAI mentions in his answer about the correct minus sign – or a is this only because of historical reason?
+
×
&÷
keys? They are correct aren't they?