
It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die - dacoja
https://medium.com/forwardtick/its-time-for-caps-lock-to-die-81c9eaa4dfa7
======
ziddoap
What a... strange battle to fight.

The author has a _serious_ bone to pick with a keyboard key.

I would suggest that anyone who feels this strongly about their caps-lock key
simply remove it from their keyboard so it can no longer be accidentaLLY
ACTIVATED.

Edit:

Also,

> _(Say, for example, double tapping the Shift key, like how it already works
> on your phone.)_

Would be terrible for gamers - I already get annoyed with sticky keys
sometimes.

~~~
dacoja
Hey, I'm the author :)

I realize it comes across like I'm super worked up over something no one cares
about, but I don't _hate_ the key, I just think it's a waste of space on
modern keyboards, and that we should collectively reconsider its purpose.
Considering the amount of time we all spend on our computers nowadays, any
little efficiencies on their input devices could have a pretty large impact.

I'm also someone who gets really passionate about bad design in everyday life
and I have strong feelings about the way I think everyday things _should_ be
designed.

On my old laptop, I remapped the key to a new kind of modifier key and made
the JKLI keys behave like ←↓→↑ keys when Caps Lock was pressed down. It sped
up my casual text input a ton, and that was the first time I started really
thinking about it more deeply. I did an HCI study during my undergrad to try
and prove that an alternate use for the key could help people input text more
efficiently, but it was inconclusive.

I also want to make a Mac app that would turn Caps Lock into Emoji Lock, where
it would toggle between normal input, and emoji input. Something like this:
[https://i.imgur.com/Z5dDVUn.png](https://i.imgur.com/Z5dDVUn.png)

I know a lot of people on this site probably don't use emojis very often, but
a ton of Mac users do, and the existing methods for typing emojis on macOS
(and Windows) are still super awkward and clunky. Unfortunately I don't know
how to code macOS apps and I've got too much on my plate right now, but
hopefully sometime in the future I'll get around to making that.

And if I'm being 100% honest, I partially wrote this article so that if Apple
does indeed replace the key on future keyboards, it'd make me look really good
at predicting the future ;)

Anyway, thanks for your feedback.

~~~
WorldMaker
I think Windows has a pretty decent emoji interface as of a couple feature
releases back: Win+. or Win+; (the Windows key [or Super key if you prefer the
Linux name] with either . or ; whichever feels more comfortable) brings up a
palette that can be navigated via keyboard and/or searched by typing words
(and/or clicked/tapped). Most recent feature update even added common kaomoji.

~~~
roboguy12
Also, for the macOS users, there's a great emoji picker interface:
cmd+ctrl+space brings up a very similar-sounding menu where you can search by
typing, or scroll through and click the one you want.

~~~
dacoja
That's actually the one I was thinking of as being awkward to activate :) I
love the picker itself but the activation method is pretty clunky in my
opinion.

I wish I could just hit one key instead of having to simultaneously press
three. I've been using Rocket for awhile now
([https://matthewpalmer.net/rocket/](https://matthewpalmer.net/rocket/)) which
kind of takes the Slack style ":emoji_name" format to the whole computer, but
it's still kind of awkward to activate and has a lot of false positive
triggers. (It really makes you realize how often you type colons in everyday
computer usage.)

------
kahlonel
As a programmer of C language, where macros are conventionally all-caps long
strings, CAPS lock is really important for me.

~~~
eddieh
I set up Emacs so Meta works on words and Super works on symbols. So I
type_the_identifier_in_lowercase then type s-b to move the cursor to the
beginning of the symbol, then type s-u to uppercase the symbol and move the
cursor back to the end of the symbol. It works out to the same number of
keystrokes as using caps lock, but is way more powerful since I can also
transform all caps to lowercase just as easily.

------
brimstedt
A long time ago I ran anticapslock.com with articles and software about
disabling/remapping the key.

The best achievement I did in the process was creating a software called
clipcontrol, which turned the caps lock key into a clipboard control key.

So caps+X/c/v worked like cut/copy/paste Caps + 1-9 was history number 1-9
Then there was support for persistent clipboard entries, etc etc Even plugin
support to do text formatting and similar :-)

I'm not sure if it still works on recent windows versions, I switched to Linux
a long time ago and a Linux version is yet to be done

Anyway, I think caps lock should be a clipboard key as clipboards are an
important part of many workflows.

~~~
brimstedt
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/clipcontrol/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/clipcontrol/)

------
breakintheweb
Caps lock is still used by French people on the azerty keyboard since you need
to press shift to access numbers.

------
Timpy
I'm using an Anne Pro II, mechanical 60% keyboard. Capslock accesses a
function layer, I've got vim-like hjkl arrow keys mapped, and some
delete/backspace keys mapped to my home row. If you just tap the capslock key
without hitting anything else on the function layer it works like a regular
capslock.

When I'm typing something in a search bar I can just hit capslock+j/k and I'm
cruising up and down the autocomplete suggestions. It's great for moving the
cursor left and right in non-editor environments (and also insert mode).

I originally bought it for ergonomics, I absolutely love it now. Once the
bindings became second nature it breathed new life into my capslock key usage.
I would recommend it, or any similar programmable 60%, to anybody who likes to
tinker with keymappings.

------
SanchoPanda
If someone agrees and wants to implement something like this easily -
autohotkey lets you do this in Windows with a one line script.

CapsLock::Ctrl ; or some other key here

To leave yourself some flexibility on using capslock still by hitting shift+
caps to activate it, use

+CapsLock::CapsLock

CapsLock::Ctrl ; or some other key here

~~~
NikkiA
I map it to F13, which I then use as a combo key to give me a variety of media
keys that my keyboard lacks natively.

Scroll lock is likewise mapped to F14 because that's another useless key.

~~~
SanchoPanda
That's clever, I beat my head against the wall a few times trying to force
direct mappings to other functions.

------
pjob
As an alternative to the "remap caps lock to esc or ctrl" crowd, I'd like to
suggest remapping to scroll lock. I don't need easier access to esc or ctrl,
so I decided to pick a different key. Scroll lock doesn't really get used for
anything important (in my workflow) and provides an extra key to use in
bindings for your text editor or games. I've been using it for about a decade
and it gives me a bit of additional utility for a key that I wouldn't
otherwise use.

~~~
basq
On a 60% and no idea where scroll lock lives (time to check the manual). But
I've come to really prefer ctrl in place of capslock. I'm also somewhat of a
madlad as I remap every game I play from wasd to esdf. This allows my pinky to
use 'a' key for functions normally mapped to shift (like running in games),
have two 'shoulder' keys (instead of q/e its qw/rt) and I can leverage the
finder-key bumps for quicker hand placement. It costs a single 5 minutes per
game but provides and overall more ergonomic (and consistent with touch
typing) experience, in my opinion. There are also a few other benefits, but I
won't go into them. Figured if I had the patience to learn/write emacs chords,
I could do this much, and it paid off quickly.

------
WorldMaker
I was convinced to try and decided that I like using Caps Lock as a left-hand
Backspace myself. Nice to have one on each side, and that one is a much more
convenient reach for your pinky.

~~~
dacoja
That's a great idea! You've inspired me to try setting it to Delete, because
it's a bit awkward to delete characters _after_ the caret on Mac right now (FN
+ Delete is the only way I know how)

~~~
eddieh
Ctrl-d deletes caracters forward on macOS. Super easy when caps lock is ctrl.

------
cbm-vic-20
Yeah, it's taking up space where the Control key should be.

~~~
disordered
I've permanently remapped my CTRL key to my Caps-Lock key. Not only does it
prevent GNU Emacs from giving me carpal tunnel syndrome, but I find that the
numerous keyboard shortcuts that use the CTRL key quickly become second nature
when the CTRL key is easier in reach.

------
mikestew
Caps Lock died a long time ago for me. I think manufacturers/OS vendors should
clearly label and market it as the "free-for-all" key. Default it to NOP to
avoid ACCIDENTAL OR INTENTIONAL CAPS LOCK. Map it to whatever you want, even
Caps Lock if you like. Mine, it's been mapped to Ctrl for ages, just as the
Most Holy IBM Model F keyboard has dictated from the ancient times.

