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It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

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Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#11
I USE CAPS LOCK ALL THE TIME. DON'T YOU DARE TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME!

Seriously, I use it a lot when programming. I like to write my inline SQL in CAPS because it's easier to read. I also write contants in UPPER_CASE. There are plenty of times where you need to type a sequence of capital letters.

Also, if you program in C or C++ you'll probably use MACROS at some point and it would be a pain to not have it available.

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#12
post #4

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 s…

Agreed, there are many things "wrong" with modern PC's, I don't think caps lock is one of them. I personally don't 'fly to close to the sun' and miss entire sentences of all-caps, because I don't look down when I type, I look at my screen.

Easier to just re-map the key to something useful than to adjust a whole industry to a single opinion.

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#15

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

Hah! "pylint" will complain about "constants" not conforming to the upper-case naming style. In some cases "constant" seems to mean simply "declared outside function scope".

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#16
post #4

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 s…

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

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.

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#18
post #16
post #4

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 s…

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…

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.

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#19
post #16
post #4

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 s…

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…

>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.

I can respect anyone who has a passion and follows through on it. Thanks for your article and reply.

Re: It’s Time for Caps Lock to Die

#20

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.

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)
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