An argument for getting rid of the physical "caps lock" key

boing
41

No, we’re keeping CAPS LOCK.
Oh, and we’d like the ESC key back too.

5 Likes
42

Yeah, this comes up on the regular. See for e.g. here:

ETA: Haha, this is hilarious, I’d forgotten. Bucholz is a funny writer.

5 Likes
43

No need here; I’ve already disabled mine.

Leave the current keyboard design alone, please.

11 Likes
44

Another niche case for caps lock is that, like numbers, caps lock does not “caps” the accent, so when you’re writing long sentences in caps using a spanish keyboard, you’re less prone to accidentally type “Ä” instead of “Á”

6 Likes
45

What would a proper multiplication key look like? an ‘x’? You have one of those. The whole computing world uses * and / to mean multiplication and division now, adding a ‘proper’ key for them would help no one.

3 Likes
46

as a vim user, I get angry at cAPS lOCK maybe once every day, especially with j/k navigation: down/K turns into help/manpage for keyword; up/J turns into delete last newline, and THEN, on top of that, u(ndo) turns into… something, I don’t even know?

And yes, I know that i can :remap, but I do ssh into many vims, and I’d rather not build a .vimrc-sync-network.
And yes, I’m sure there is like 5-key-macro to uppercase the last NAMESPACED_CRAZY_VERBOSE_CONSTANT i have to type from time to time, but "+y already takes up 70% of my brain.

2 Likes
47

I know a few VIM users that reprogram it to ESC.

3 Likes
48

Yeah, same for architectural drawings. However most programs now have a built in auto-format to do it for you if you forget.

2 Likes
49

It would help typesetters.

Nearly all Opentype fonts should include the correct designs.

9 Likes
50

Why not have CAPS LOCK engaged the way it is on smartphone keyboards – i.e. with a double-tap on the SHIFT key – and free up the CAPS LOCK key to toggle on something more useful, like emoji?

Haha, way to make everyone love the caps lock.

I think a more useful key would be a dedicated auto-complete key.

4 Likes
51

Or do like the Commodore 64 did and put the symbols on the front of the key

3 Likes
52

Me, I just want the “Print Screen” button to work as advertised.

6 Likes
53

They can pry my “Sys Req” key frum mah cold, dead hands!

6 Likes
54

Wait, you can remap cap lock from within vim?

1 Like
55

Ok fair point, but you could make that argument about pretty much anything. Open and close quotes, all the accented letters. Mathematicians and scientists use the Greek alphabet all the time.

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56

Covet covet

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57

BUT HOW WILL I WAKE UP THE SHEEPLE TO THE GOVERNMENT INFECTING OUR BRAINS WITH COMPUTER VIRUSES OVER THE WIFI? JUST GOOGLE IT. CONTRAILS MAKE US STERILE. BOTTLED WATER IS A PLOT BY THE SHRINERS TO MUTATE KIDS SO THEY HAVE MORE FOR THEIR HOSPITALS. TWITTER IS OWNED BY THE REPTILLIANS SO THEY KNOW WHO TO EAT. TRUMP KNOWS THIS AND THAT IS WHY HE IS TRYING TO DESTROY AMERICA SO THE ALIENS IN THE SENATE DON’T PUT THE SAME STUFF IN THE WATER SUPPLY THAT HAS ALREADY TURNED ALL THE FROGS GAY111!!!

Body seems unclear? Yes I am sure it is a complete sentence. It has multiple complete sentences! See! See! Boingboing doesn’t want you knowing the truth!!!

7 Likes
58

True, but these keys already exist twice (shift+8 for asterisk) on the extended keyboard, so apart from convenience they are already redundant.

1 Like
59

So do I. The sun4 keyboard had Control there, and that’s where it belongs.

1 Like
60

Every time this discussion comes up I get a free win in the current round of “spot the non-programmer”.

Samll chunk of actual code in C:

CONFIG_CC_IS_GCC=y
CONFIG_GCC_VERSION=90100
CONFIG_CLANG_VERSION=0
CONFIG_CC_CAN_LINK=y
CONFIG_CC_HAS_ASM_GOTO=y
CONFIG_CC_HAS_WARN_MAYBE_UNINITIALIZED=y
CONFIG_CC_DISABLE_WARN_MAYBE_UNINITIALIZED=y
CONFIG_IRQ_WORK=y
CONFIG_BUILDTIME_EXTABLE_SORT=y

Unless we’re putting a third SHIFT key in its place, I’m going to wear out the two that I have.

5 Likes