ISTR seeing a keyboard in the early 80s or late 70s that had a caps lock AND a shift lock key. I also remember using a keyboard that had a RETURN key and a SEND key rather than an ENTER key. Because sometimes you want to send more than one line at a time to the mainframe.
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Ah, I think I get how that works, and thanks. The link just took me to a login screen.
Though I prefer my non-emojied emojis to have noses.
Like this ;-)
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Unless you’ve got one of these!
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I occasionally fat-pinky the caps lock key while reaching for the shift. I miss my Heathkit keyboard that had the caps lock LED on the key itself.
A double-tap-to-lock shift key would take some getting used to in games where the shift is frequently used for running. But I suppose that would make it a natural choice for run locking which many games enable with a different key.
But ABSOLUTELY NO EMOJI KEYS ALLOWED ON MY PC KEYBOARD. I spend enough time trying to figure out how to disable the emoji features of my Android keyboards. I don’t need this infecting my Windows world.
This is so true. I’ve noticed for years that whenever I sit down at a Solidworks user’s desk to assist them with something it seems the caps lock is invariably engaged.
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Remap it to Ctrl. Much less strain on the pinky.
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I need a Wow key on my keyboard for all those times a client asks for more “wow factor”. Don’t need emojis.
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It’s a little weird to go after Caps Lock when there are other keys on the PC keyboard (Scroll Lock, Sys Rq, Pause, Break) that most people have never used and don’t even understand the purpose of. You want to clean up the keyboard, why not go after that real estate first?
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As a rig&monitor type, with great bitterness I watched Windows GUI devolve into planar minimalism suited to pocket toys. Now you want to smartphonize desktop hardware as well? You just leave my Caps Lock alone now, OK?!
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If we’re talking about re-mapping keys, then why not consider the various bits of typography that were cruelly discarded when we implemented typewriters and keyboards in the first place?
Do we have space for a separate en-dash and em-dash, rather than abstracting every horizontal line to a minus?
How about restoring the ligatures (or are they better handled in software)
Or restoring the distinction between the single quote and the apostrophe (anyone who has tried to delineate text will thank you for this)
When you think about it, the category of “Symbols that get to be on the keyboard” has a strange path-dependent history.
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In all fairness, we already have an “emoji” key thanks to Windows 10. Windows + “.” (period) will pop up an emoji window.
Let’s leave caps lock alone for now, can we?
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The duplication of arrow keys as separate keys and then RIGHT NEXT TO THEM as shifted keys on the number pad would seem to be silly to me. And of course old school games use WASD as arrow keys.
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I think the issue is not so much lack of real estate (though there is some limit, right), but rather ACCIDENTALLY HITTING IT AND TYPING FOR A WHILE before you realize it. It can be annoying.
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I’ve had software that’s made use of Scroll Lock and Break/Pause (which makes me nostalgic for the RUN/STOP and RESTORE keys on my first computer, a Vic-20) but I can’t remember ever using SysRq.
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And it is related to what characters get to be in a character set.
World Power Systems:Texts:Annotated history of character codes
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Another group of people who would be mad at losing the caps lock is DBAs
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Why do we have two asterisk keys on Mac extended keyboards, why not have a proper multiplication and division key while we are about it //**
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When I truly want to holler something in text (happens very rarely) I keep the shift key pressed down. This makes it feel a bit awkward to type, but that’s a feature, not a bug. Because shouting is also less comfortable then regular talking, so this makes it feel like you really put in the extra effort to truly get your point across.
My vote as to what should replace it? A third enter key. There isn’t one on the left hand side of the keyboard and that is a oversight.
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Considering that usage requires it to be always on for long periods of time, it seems a good candidate for an on/off button it the app that can be triggered with a key combination.
This argument about getting rid of it makes a lot of sense to me. The easily accessible keys should be more thing that you turn on and off constantly. If anything, put it up at the top out of the way like the volume keys on a Mac.
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