
Caps Lock Key Has No Place on a Modern Keyboard - cammsaul
http://www.camsaul.com/2013/03/caps-lock-key-has-no-place-on-a-modern-keyboard/
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ChrisNorstrom
Nonsense!

The average person uses CAPS LOCK a lot more than those function keys at the
top, or the scroll lock or pause/break key or the insert key.

I use it when typing addresses for shipping labels or sometimes the column
names for excel spreadsheets or serial keys or case sensetive captchas. I know
it's not much but it's still a lot more than the function keys, pause/break,
insert, or scroll lock.

I've never in my life used F1-F3 and F5-F11. (alt+F4 closes windows and F12 is
for full screen, those I use).

Perhaps Capslock and Backspace should be switched?

~~~
bluthru
>I use it when typing addresses for shipping labels

>the column names for excel spreadsheets or serial keys

Why would those need to be upper-case?

~~~
hncommenter13
The USPS still recommends addresses be entered in upper case: "We recommend
that you write addresses in all uppercase letters." [1]

This apparently used to be a bigger deal back when the USPS relied on OCR more
heavily for bulk mail delivery, but barcodes have become the method of
choice.[2]

[1]
[http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usps/request.do?create=kb%3...](http://faq.usps.com/eCustomer/iq/usps/request.do?create=kb%3AUSPSFAQ&view%28%29=c\[c_usps0910\]&varset%28source%29=sourceType%3Aembedded)

[2] [http://smartystreets.com/kb/faq/should-addresses-be-in-
upper...](http://smartystreets.com/kb/faq/should-addresses-be-in-uppercase)

~~~
badkangaroo
... oh ya, the USPS is relevant. When did snail mail drive the modernization
of anything?

~~~
ChrisNorstrom
Oh really? So e-commerce (which uses snail mail) is irrelevant? So the
millions of products that are sold online from all over the internet just...
magically teleport to their destination huh?

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NamTaf
Of course it does. Any draftsman worth his salt will tell you that many
standards dictate all drawing text to be in caps - in fact, I cannot think of
any proper design drawing that does not use full caps. Even drafting
calligraphy used on hand drawn design drawings uses a very specific writing
style that is all-caps.

Why would you permanently hold down shift for that? You have to type:

\- general notes

\- welding notes

\- the bill of materials

\- title block text, names, etc.

\- dimension / tolerance info

\- much more

all in capitals. There's simply no reason not to use caps lock.

On this point, it's also useful to note that the shift key allows the user to
shift capslock off temporarily. This is the use case of all draftsmen I know,
as the only time lowercase is used on drawings is for some dimensions (eg: the
unit for millimetres is 'mm' in lower case). So that functionality as part of
capslock is necessary too.

~~~
NamTaf
In fact, I think this is a good example of needing to fully understand all use
cases of a particular feature before making judgements on its usefulness. An
integral part of working on a system is fully understanding the needs of all
of the users, needs that may not have been intended during the primary design
of the system.

I know I've fallen in to this trap before, where I've proposed a design change
to a system and had a prototype manufactured only to have the workshop floor
staff immediately explain why it's useless, because it cannot reproduce some
unintended but now-important function of the original design.

Conversely, it's also good to look at unintended uses of previous designs.
I've used equipment for functions it was never designed to do, but
nevertheless proved to be a simple and effective solution.

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moonboots
On Linux it's possible to simultaneously map caps lock to both escape and
control with xcape [1]. On short presses without any other keys depressed,
escape is fired. On press-and-hold with other keys, control is fired. This is
great for vim, emacs, and any other application with control shortcuts.

[1] <https://github.com/alols/xcape>

~~~
enoch_r
This! For the same functionality on OS X, I use KeyRemap4MacBook (terrible
name, great program).

Edit: sbader beat me to it. His link is where I originally got the idea, and
is definitely worth a read--to some extent I think a lot of it is very
thorough yak shaving, but... sometimes it's fun to shave some yaks!

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prezjordan
I really like the MacBook feature where you have to press the caps lock key
for some time (a bit longer than the accidental "tap") to activate it.

~~~
erichocean
WTF. I had no idea it did that, and so I would press the key a bunch of times
in a row until it "took". Sometimes 20 or 30 times. Drove me nuts, I just
thought my keyboard was intermittently broken. _grrrrrrr_

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runn1ng
Ummm... I don't get it. What is wrong with caps lock?

What if I want to type, let's say, some longer name of a constant that are
usually IN_ALL_CAPS_AND_WRITTEN_LIKE_THIS?

I don't want to hold shift on all these letters. I LIKE CAPS LOCK AND I LIKE
IT A LOT.

~~~
tmalloy
If you're using vi you can do something like this:

nnoremap <c-u> viwU

To use it just type the word in lowercase, hover your cursor over any letter
in the word, and press Ctrl-U to highlight it.

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citricsquid
> I can’t think of a single time when I’ve ever wanted to use it

That's because you know how to type. Watch your parents or someone that
doesn't type often use a keyboard, you'll notice they only ever use one finger
at a time; you can't use one finger at a time with SHIFT. Caps lock doesn't
make sense for someone that can type well but makes perfect sense for people
that can't. oh and also people with one hand.

~~~
bowmessage
I get your argument about a person with one hand, but anyone who types with
one finger can easily (and usually does) use their other index finger to hold
shift.

~~~
klodolph
Not everyone who types with one hand has two hands.

~~~
gingerlime
That's pretty much the target group for the capslock key then?

~~~
r00fus
Still not necc. if the shift has stickykeys behavior, which is configurable on
almost any modern OS.

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samatman
My personal remap of caps lock is backspace. The usual one, which I hit a lot
(y'know, we type, we make mistakes), cranks my wrist, whereas the capslock
key, which lives on the home row, is zero stress.

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kanja
I mapped capslock to control, and I think I use it more than any other key.

~~~
tempestn
Exactly. Mapping it to another key makes way more sense than just disabling it
entirely.

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protomyth
For normal people that I observe, caps lock is used a lot. I get asked quite a
lot where the "caps lock" is on the iPad on screen keyboard[1].

I could agree with the post if it was qualified for modern developers (RPGers
would disagree).

1) push left and right shift at the same time

~~~
TreyS
I've mapped caps lock to control on my keyboard but I like to use caps lock
when I'm typing on a phone. For acronyms and such it is useful and the
inability to hold shift on an iphone makes caps lock a better option. However,
on a keyboard when it is trivial to hold shift, it is useless.

~~~
protomyth
> on a keyboard when it is trivial to hold shift, it is useless.

I take it you are a touch typist and/or don't suffer from any motor skill
problems?

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zampano
In OSX, instead of setting caps lock to "no action", I set it to be another
control key. I have never been able to hit the pathetic little excuse for a
control key on Mac keyboards without also tapping fn or option.

~~~
npx
I do the same thing. This is a lifesaver for using Screen, which was
frustrating as a longtime PC/Linux user - the crtl+a escape sequence becomes
even easier to hit.

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pigou
Unlike most keyboards which have the ctrl key on the bottom left corner,
MacBook Pro keyboards for some reason have the useless fn button at that
location, and the ctrl key to the right of that. This makes text navigation
with the emacs keybindings (eg, "ctrl+n" and "ctrl+p") even more awkward than
it usually is, given that touch typing requires you to stay close to home row.

The solution to both this problem and the uselessness of the caps lock key is
just to set the caps lock key to act as ctrl.

<http://stackoverflow.com/a/162907>

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niuzeta
#include <def.h> and many C defs and libraries(notably Gtk+ with so many
constants), macros, and constants... This applies to C++ and Java as well.

I rest my case, from a C programmer.

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rbol
There are actual use cases for the caps lock key. For example, drafters
working on any kind of technical drawing will extensively use capital letters.

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newrog84
As an engineer, there are a lot of technical documents and drawings that often
require 100% caps. I wouldn't be able to do my job without Caps.

There are also a variety of applications and situations that I have used it,
as simply a home user as well.

Not including being spammy or 'shouting' it Once you get past the 'Someone is
yelling' in all CAPS. Most of the time ALL CAPITALS IS EASIER to read for many
people. It prints more legible.

~~~
Nerdfest
Studies have shown that all caps text is significantly harder to read by the
vast majority of the population. Engineering and drafting documents that have
an all upper case convention should change their convention. It's a hold-over
that's been going on too long.

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groue
People using Windows (I don't know about Linux) think that Caps lock is Shift
lock. Wrong. It's _Caps_ lock. And that's pretty useful.

On OSX French keyboard, Shift-é would give 2, Caps-lock+é gives É. That key
gives straight and easy access to uppercase diacriticals: é-É, è-È, à-À, etc.
And when "UNTEL ACCUSE" means "some guy accuses", "UNTEL ACCUSÉ" means "some
guy accused". It's pretty important.

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jzone3
I don't see why the author would set the key to "No Action". I find Control to
be a great replacement for Caps Lock.

~~~
OlivierLi
Escape is also a good choice, especially for vim use.

~~~
pasbesoin
Control-[ functions as Escape, in Vim.

If/once you remap Capslock to Control, this should be even easier to hit.

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firefoxman1
I have to say, replacing the caps lock with a "search" (super) key is one of
the best design decisions on my chromebook. It automatically brings up my
Gnome3 app menu/search, which I used to have Gnome-Do for.

Needless to say, the "search" key is the first one pressed every time I boot
up.

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slig
I have my Caps Lock mapped to Control on OS X (10.6.8). Since the last update,
the mapping disappears randomly. I googled and there're other people with the
same problem, but no solution yet.

Figured I'd ask here if anyone found out how to fix it.

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duggieawesome
Complaining about the caps lock key has become somewhat cliche.

As a Vim user, just map it to control.

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skizm
What would be an alternative to the caps lock key? When I type final and/or
static variables that are more than a few characters I don't want to be
holding shift the whole time like a neanderthal.

~~~
r00fus
On most editors, I can type, then select ( opt-shift-rt-arrow) the word and
apply a case change - it's often faster than remembering to use the capslock
and then remembering to unlock afterwards.

Also doing the double-shift = capslock can be useful if you're not double-
shifting often (ie, gaming).

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joeheyming
This person has obviously never programmed a day in his life. Caps lock is
very useful for typing uppercase CONSTANTS.

This is not relevant for hacker news.

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fatjokes
You've never been angry on the Internet?

~~~
klodolph
An old joke: MY NEW KEYBOARD ARRIVED FROM AOL.

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badkangaroo
For me, the caps lock key is that thing that i keep hitting by accident when i
reach for shift+tab.

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dallasmarlow
if there was no caps lock key, what would i remap to ctrl? =p

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drivebyacct2
I use it for my password. A _lot_ of muscle memory attached to it, though I'd
like to retrain myself to use it as a Ctrl key.

