My guess, I think because the key says “Caps” on it it makes sense, whereas they don’t know what Shift would do, having never used an actual typewriter.
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This first thing I do when I get a new laptop or job, is to remove the caps lock key. It’s a hassle and gets in the way.
And for Mac users, here’s how to enable sticky keys and other keyboard accessibility options.
But is that really an argument for a dedicated caps lock key? Some users, as you noted, would rather have a shift lock than a caps lock; others will have other uses for that key. Maybe it should just be a ‘user’ key whose function is customizable.
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I remember pressing it for the first time under Windows and being dissappointed that a graphic image of the screen didn’t start coming out on the printer. It was a Panasonic KXP1124, perfectly capable of printing bitmaps after all! Then pressing it several more times because apparently nothing happened!
I’m guessing that the people gunning for caps lock are mostly typing on laptops or laptop-derivative desktop keyboards that already don’t acknowledge the existence of anything further right than the enter key; otherwise they would presumably come for those first.
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One thing I wonder about is if we could simultaneously improve ligatures while enhancing programming languages.
For example, the first thing a lot of windows programmers do when getting a new installation of Office is to disable those damned smart quotes. Otherwise Outlook or Word will exchange ASCII quote marks for typographical symbols for start of quote and end of quote, (apostrophes too) and that destroys code integrity if you copy/paste to/from email.
So what if we adopted them instead, and added typographical quote marks to computer languages? Could we improve the languages by finding more uses than plain quotes? Maybe the languages would do additional syntax checking, to better align the code with the programmers’ intent?
TBH this idea gives me the shuddering creeps – I’ve been programming for almost 50 years, and the thought of changing something so fundamental seems utterly stupid. However, I’ve also seen very smart people turn opportunities like this into brilliant improvements. So even if I abhor the idea, that doesn’t mean it’s awful for everyone.
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All you really need is a single key, like the space key, and a facility for morse code. Everything else is just a convenience. Singling out any one particular key as unnecessary is arbitrary.
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There may well be languages that would benefit from more symbols; but choosing one that is, deliberately, so close to an existing, heavily meaning-laden, symbol seems like a terrible plan.
If the feature you want is clearer delineation of what you are quoting, most IDEs and code-focused text editors can help you out at the UI level(they can do similar things for your parentheses and assorted brackets); while if you have use for a 3rd variant of the quotation mark you really don’t want it to resemble the other two any more than absolutely necessary, which smart quotes definitely do.
You might as well argue to abolish qwerty. The caps lock persists for the same reason pennies do: the (political) risk involved in fixing the problem outweighs any possible benefit (to the reformer).
Thats kinda why we havent called a global strike in support of climate reform.
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Wow, look at all these comments. Also, tldr.
Anyhow, here’s some things we really do need to get rid of
- First-past-the-post
- The 1¢ coin (pennies)
- The Electoral College
- Daylight Savings Time
- The Caps Lock key.
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Caps Lock is useful because it’s often the only key that toggles an LED anymore. If my computer’s not responding, it’s my favourite key to mash repeatedly to see just how borked the system is; no light toggle means I should either reboot, or mash the caps lock key a bit more while swearing and then reboot depending on when I last saved.
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Just an idea - but how about replacing the button with a pneumatic foot pedal? Seems a lot more convenient to me.
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I submit that we should just replace with CAPSLOCK key with a BZZT key that gives you a nice little 20V, 0.5mA electrical shock every time you hit it to remind you that life is pain and existence is fleeting.
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Personally I don’t mind the capslock key. It’s the WINDOWS key that has fucked me over in FPS games in the past. I did remove that from my keyboard eventually.
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FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been hand-printing (writing) in caps lock by hand since 1976. Caps of caps lock printing are 1.5X the size of non-caps. People tell me they like my handwriting.
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e e cummings
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Get rid of CapsLock. It will make room for an “Any” key.
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I sadly had to part with it in a move; but I once had a WaveMate Jupiter II, including the “CFP-125 Computer Front Panel Unit”. Since clock speeds and address spaces were still on a scale where this was relevant, it included a 4 (hex) digit display of the system address buss; along with switches to toggle the system between halt and run and to step a halted system forward one instruction step at a time.
Not what I’d call the height of UI convenience; but I’ve never felt closer to the metal.
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Note that the control key is large and easily accessible, but the caps lock key is small, and tucked away in a corner.
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uh caps lock is “cruise control for cool” and it’s been proven that using cruise control increases MPG and thus reduces global warming, thus it is reactionary conservative and bad to take my caps lock key away
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