Although the native input method of iOS has always complained that it is not easy to use, an Easter egg that has been exposed recently has allowed us to experience a different kind of humor from engineers.
A user named Jason Robinson took the lead in sharing the news on Twitter. Apple is known to embed “Clarus the dogcow” code in its iPhone virtual keyboard — all the way back to the early days of the Macintosh.
When you type Clarus or moof into the iOS keyboard, the two emojis cow and dog appear in the IntelliSense recommendation. Long-time fans may recall that Susan Kara developed several fonts for the early Macintosh, including Cairo.
Cracking up at this deep-cut iOS Easter egg I just stumbled across.
Who would appreciate this?
Maybe @gruber would appreciate this. pic.twitter.com/BOZ3GTsG2t
— Jason Robinson (@VafeR) March 30, 2022
The operating system then chose to display “Clarus the cowdog” in the preview window in order to facilitate the preview of the paper orientation in the LaserWriter printer options.
Clarus later featured prominently in QuickTime sample projects, document previews, and elsewhere in the operating system until Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s. Fortunately, after many years of the violation, a fan of “Clarus the dogcow” quietly implanted the relevant code into the software disk of iOS.