The Esc key is a key labeled Esc or Escape that is used to generate the
ASCII Escape character (
Control-[, ASCII code 27 in decimal), the character code traditionally used to initiate an
escape sequence. As the typical computer user is no longer concerned with the details of controlling their computer's
peripherals, the task escape sequences were designed for, the escape key was appropriated by
application programmers, most often to mean Stop. This use continues today in
Microsoft Windows's use of escape as a shortcut in dialog boxes for No, Quit, Exit, Cancel, or Abort.
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