War Declared on Caps Lock Key

pieterh writes "I've launched a campaign to rid the world of the caps lock key. Sure, there are more serious problems to solve but please, think of the children! How am I going to explain to my kids why some of the most valuable keyboard real estate is squatted by a large, useless key that above all you must not press! Our campaign mission is simple: to send a message to the computer industry to force it (by any means necessary) to retire the CAPS key. It's going to be a hard, long, and possibly very embarassing war on uppercase, but some things just need to be done. "

Helpful image to pass along

[crazyjeremy (857410)]

This instructional image has helped some people through the years...
http://users.mtrx.net/image.php?user=funnypics&ima geurl=2005%2F2005-08-23-0002%2FCAPSLOCK.GIF&showfo lder=0 [mtrx.net]
Maybe you should post it in forums for the tards instead of declaring war on Uppercase.

Useful for Vi users

[suso (153703)]

Put this in your .Xmodmap

remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keycode 66 = Escape

I find that the Capslock key makes a nice Escape key so I don't have to reach up high for it.

Re:Useful for Vi users

[wilper (103281)]

And we that prefer the superior editor can replace it with Ctrl, to ease the strain on the wrist.

I did this six years ago and have never looked back, I even do it on Windows-machines these days. There is a nice little util called ctrl2caps (or possibly caps2ctrl) that does this for you.

The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the World

[sirrobert (937726)]

yeah, that extra 1.5" is an unbearable distance to reach..

Hold on. Take a step back and look at the big picture:

Doing some basic, preliminary research while reading the article (and extrapolating the data), I've found that I use the escape key an average of 2983742 times per day. Now, that inch-and-a-half may not seem like much, but do some conversion: that's around seventy extra miles I'm moving my arm per day. Now, I'm an above average escapist, so I figure that if I'm moving my arm an extra 70 miles, the average user is probably moving only about 68 miles per day. I'm not an expert, but from what I gather from 60 Minutes, I'm probably burning calories equivalent to those I would take in consuming an entire cow. We know that forfty percent of cows are fed on the burning corpses of amazon rainforest trees. I saw a movie once (starring Sean Connery and someone else) in which they found the cure for cancer in the Amazon! And think of all the heat emitted from those trees, coupled with the MEGAJOULES of energy being emitted in the form of heat from the burning of the cows (for food) each day, per person. Now, INSFBCL (I'm Not Some Fancy Big City Lawyer), but you don't have to be teh inventor of the intarweb to know that that much heat escaping into the atmosphere is at least quintupling the effects of Global Warning every year.

Move the escape key to the caps-lock slot? Is there really any question? Is there really any choice?

Think of the children. And their melty ice-cream cones.

And cancer.

Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo

[by Anonymous Coward]

STOP using vi and you won't have to hit escape 2983742 times per day.

Why bother?

[rickb928 (945187)]

According to my calculations, you died about 7.4 years ago, from inadequate nutrition. You just couldn't get enough calories in between using vi and backing up to see the gallery so you could pick the *next* Cindy Margolis pic.

RIP, my friend, RIP.

rick

Thats some fast typing.... 620wpm??

[Tmack (593755)]

I've found that I use the escape key an average of 2983742 times per day. Now, that inch-and-a-half may not seem like much, but do some conversion: that's around seventy extra miles I'm moving my arm per day.

Lets do some math together....

2983742 times in 24 hours, or 124322.6 times an hour, or 2072 per minute, or about 34.5 per second. Now, Given your estimate of 1.5" to the key, and another 1.5" back, or 3" of total travel, being traversed 34.5 times every second yields about 103.6"/s, or roughly 8.5 feet per second. This of course assumes you are solely focused on this activity 24hours a day nonstop. Take out 5hours for sleep (yes, even codermonkeys get sleep sometime, and we are going off averages here), another 2 for restroom breaks, coffee intake/refilling and food, and another hour for pr0n (though the velocity and reps might still be obtained over a similar distance, that is a different discussion outside the scope here...), we get only 16 hours for typing. This bumps the speed up to about 13 feet per second, at 52 presses per second. Taking into account that the esc key has to be at most half of the keypresses to allow for the full travel to it and from it such that a letter key is getting pressed at least as fast and often as the esc key, this also means your average typing wpm is (using the avg of 5char/word) is about 620.

tm

Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo

[Austerity Empowers (669817)]

Wow. If I'm ever on trial for murder, I'm hiring you as my defense attorney.

Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo

[SQLGuru (980662)]

sexy Tech Worker

See, now I know you're making stuff up.....those three words don't go together.

Layne

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[flosofl (626809)]

bUT hOW wILL pEOPLE KNOW wHEN I aM BEING sUPER CEREAL? cEREALOUSLY! (fucking lameness filter)

Look at the stupider picture...

[azav (469988)]

What is really wrong with caps lock is that IF you hold down shift while caps is on, it lowercases everything - on windows.

While the first solution here is not to use Windows, the real problem is "why would a button named 'Caps Lock' perform a task against its very nature?"

The button should be called "Maybe Caps Lock. Maybe Not." But that would require an even larger button.

But then the poor NIGERIAN SCAMMERS will have to hold down the shift key while typing their sob stories in all caps. Hmmmm.

I vote to remove it.

Re:Look at the stupider picture...

[drinkypoo (153816)]

What is really wrong with caps lock is that IF you hold down shift while caps is on, it lowercases everything - on windows.

And on many other systems.

In this case, the SHIFT key is doing precisely what it says. If caps lock is off, it shifts to capitals. If it's on, it shifts to lowercase.

Don't complain when systems are logical.

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[sk8dork (842313)]

in my job the poeple doing medical billing use software that requires all letter keypresses must be in caps also. perhaps the person starting this crap knows nothing of these worlds and is only concerned about all the all-caps emails and IMs and forum posts he sees.

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[twistedsymphony (956982)]

Same here, I work for a very large aerospace manufacturer and all the notes on the engineering documents are required to be in all caps.

Aparently the "War on Caps Lock" is spearheaded by someones who's entire computer world revolves around chatting with immature pre-teens online.

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[Agelmar (205181)]

I've never understood why people carry on all-caps requirements that probably originated in the days of teletypes. I admit that at one point in time, it might have been useful to restrict people to a small number of characters to save a few bits, but nowadays it's not worth it. I have no idea of what company you work for and I'm not going to ask, but I will say that I have worked in places with old systems that still require all caps for text, even though the original systems have since been discarded and re-written any number of times. ("But we want to maintain the look and feel of the old system so that people are comfortable using the new system" - forgetting that anybody new they hire looks at it and says "WTF is this POS?"... but I digress)

Anyhow, I always felt sorry for anyone who actually had to read the all-caps mess. I occasionally read some stuff, and after a sentence or two the all caps text gave me the worst headache ever. Proper grammar and capitalization is meant to make language easier to parse. Purposefully leaving out capitalization just makes things hard to read.

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[LWATCDR (28044)]

Okay... If the task requires a field to be in all caps why didn't the programmer just convert what every was entered in that field in all caps???
It isn't that hard to convert a string in to all up case. In most programing languages it is a built in function.
I would say who ever wrote your billing software needs to be replaced.
BTW why would you want to enter data in all caps anyway? It is harder to read than even all lower case and any good software would convert index strings into all one case so it isn't a problem with searching. If it is just because that is the way it has always been done I can understand. But then the software should deal setting the case and not the users hitting the caps lock key.
Sounds like bad software and or practices to me.

what about other languages

[Patrick13 (223909)]

In Spanish, it is very common to type in all caps - somehow it is considered acceptable to type words without accent marks if they are in all caps.

Only point being is that just because the caps lock is not useful in your language/culture, it doesn't mean that other languages/cultures don't find it useful.

Re:Helpful image to pass along

[suffe (72090)]

Then how about the four of you keep your old keyboards?

gOOD lUCK

[h890231398021 (948231)]

bEST oF lUCK wITH yOUR fIGHT

Re:gOOD lUCK

[rwven (663186)]

LOL, while it is annoying when people type in all caps and things like that, I use the caps lock key for legitimate reasons all the time. I'm in a data-mining job working on a UniData database and all UniQuery must be written in all caps. This would be a supreme pain to do sans a Caps-Lock key. This is just one of MANY things that falls under that umbrella. I also use the caps lock key as my "walk" key while playing CS. :-D

Frankly...I find the idea of getting rid of the caps lock key...slightly appalling. :)

Re:gOOD lUCK

[LiquidCoooled (634315)]

I don't mind it existing, it just pisses me off where it actually is.
Its one thing to have an accidental character in your text, its another to completely mess up the rest of the line.

Re:gOOD lUCK

[Smidge204 (605297)]

That's hard to do when you're transcribing something off of paper, unless you like looking back and forth a lot.

=Smidge=

Next on Slashdot

[zubernerd (518077)]

Must be a slow news day, again!
Stories to be seen soon on Slashdot:
"Jihad declared on SysRq key" and "Crusade declared on 'Scroll Lock' Key"

Re:Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry

[JustOK (667959)]

Hopefully, with only one button left. It should be big and blue and convey a sense of well being and security, and provide the user with a sense of accomplisment and success when pushed.

Re:Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry

[Flibz (716178)]

W shld gt rd f thm psky vwls fr strtrs!

What About INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY?

[eldavojohn (898314)]

IN HONOR OF THE SUBJECT MATERIAL, I HAVE CHOSEN TO USE THE CAPS LOCK FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE FOR THIS POST.

On second thought, that's far too annoying.

If the proposed abolishment of caps lock keys is successful, I grow concerned about what myself and my predecessors will celebrate on INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY [derekarnold.net] which happens to be October 22. And don't tell me it's not a real holiday because that is one convincing website. It has a news flash with a picture of a potato, uses the word "bitches" and has a countdown for the days remaining to INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. And look at this other reputable site, Out House Rag [typepad.com] that also backs INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. That's more than Adults Day in Japan [wikipedia.org] has to say! Please, if I have to put up with one more Nevada Day [wikipedia.org] (October 31) the least you can do is let me have my INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. Please don't remove your caps lock key [goodexperience.com] because they're not evil [photobucket.com]!

You know, there's this horrible site [c2.com] that actually encourages you to remap your caps lock to a more suitable function ... but of course that would just be sacrilegious [wap.org] and a very dangerous process [wap.org] (don't try it at home!).

Couldn't agree more!

[Pope (17780)]

What a toally useless key to have in such a prominent keying position. The old school 'boards had it right: big-ass Control key next to the A, tiny Caps Lock in the bottom left corner. It made even more sense when Windows starting adopting the Mac's Command-letter keyboard shortcut as Control-letter, like Cut/Copy/Paste.

DOWN WITH CAPS LOCK!

Slashdot and CapsLock

[jonv (2423)]

Slashdot seems to have a solution. Tried to post a funny message in all Caps and Slashdot responded:
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

Data entry issues

[sirstar (789206)]

What about the Data entry people that have to type things in all caps? Holding down the shift button to type in a whole line will be more of a pain then someone learning how to turn their caps lock off.....

THINK OF THE DATA ENTRY PEOPLE!!!

[Korgan (101803)]

WHAT ABOUT THOSE OF US THAT HAVE TO USE CAPSLOCK TO ENTER DATA INTO A BUSINESS SYSTEM? WHERE WILL YOU LEAVE US???????

Ooops. Sorry, caps. :-P

Seriously though, I know lots of people who's business requires them to enter data into their company's systems using caps. I don't know about you, but my little pinky would get extremely disfigured having to swap to and hold the shift button all the time. You'd slow typists down immeasurably.

Re:THINK OF THE DATA ENTRY PEOPLE!!!

[technos (73414)]

It's for consistancy. Say you're entering a string into billing.

You could get

'Cisco model X12R1234-J router with cabling.'
'CISCO MODEL X12R1234-J ROUTER WITH CABLING'
'cisco model X12R1234-J router with cabling'
'Cisco Model X12R1234-J Router With Cabling.'

or any variation therof. Mixed capitilizations and (and inconsistant punctuation) make you look like an idiot, and training people to not look like idiots is harder than it sounds.

Re:THINK OF THE DATA ENTRY PEOPLE!!!

[hcdejong (561314)]

Still the wrong way to solve the problem. Have the computer sort out dumb issues like capitalisation, instead of forcing the humans to adapt to some arcane and unreadable convention. While you're at it, get the computer to do something to prevent people from entering the same information twice.

While you are at it.

[ErroneousBee (611028)]

Sort the rest of the keyboard out.

Insert and Caps lock need to be moved out of the way, so that you can use them, but you dont accidentally change a mode while going for another key. The Windows button can be moved too. I keep hitting it when using windows and defocusing the window Im working in. They have no effect in KDE so its not a bother there.

Backspace and delete need to be side by side.

Minus and plus need to be given the same level, as shifting to get a plus is not logical compared to minus.

And Num-Lock too!

[Adhemar (679794)]

While we're at it, can we get rid of NUM LOCK too? At least on normal 100+ key keyboards.

It should be on, not only by default, but all the time. We have arrow keys, Page up and down, Home and End, Insert and Delete between the letters and the right-side number pad. There's no need to duplicate those keys just beside it.

Only negative point: it was up to now a cool hack to make flash the LEDs indicating CAPS and NUM LOCK, like the Knight Rider car, or make it send messages in Morse.

maybe just a new placement?

[rayde (738949)]

i propose that keyboards should place caps lock up in no-man's land with Print Screen, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break, rather than doing away with it completely. For the few times you actually would WANT to activate caps lock, it shouldn't be a problem for people to reach up there. And those who need caps lock a lot for their old programming language or somthing can use a legacy keyboard.

The reason why CAPS LOCK is where it is.

[Comboman (895500)]

That's certainly a better option than getting rid of it altogether. The reason for the current location of the caps lock key actually has nothing to do with usability but rather was for compatibility with old typewriters. The caps lock key on typewriteers (actually a 'shift lock' key which affected the numbers and punctuation as well) had to be directly above the shift key since it was a mechanical latch that physically kept the shift key held down.

Useless? Not at all!

[Lars Clausen (1208)]

My Caps Lock key is gainfully in use to change the keyboard layout between English and Danish. It's wonderful as it lights up an LED, so I can easily see the state I'm in, and it's very handily placed. Please don't take my Caps^H^H^H^HLayout Lock key away!

This can be fixed in about five minutes

[mschaef (31494)]

On Windows, Caps Lock and Control can be swepped. A similar technique can be used to make caps lock a redundant control key:

http://www.manicai.net/comp/swap-caps-ctrl.html [manicai.net]

There are also ways to do this on Unix, but I don't remember what they are.

I need it

[mombodog (920359)]

What? Get rid of it? How will I make posts on EBay and Craigslist? ;-)

put control there instead

[jjeffries (17675)]

The old-timers in the crowd probably already know about this one:

Replacing CapsLock with Left-Control on X
Create the file ~/.Xmodmap with these contents:

            remove mod4 = Meta_L
            remove mod1 = Alt_L
            remove lock = Caps_Lock
            keysym Meta_L = Alt_L
            keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
            add mod4 = Meta_L
            add mod1 = Alt_L
            add control = Caps_Lock

If you are running something like XFree86, add

            xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

to your ~/.xinitrc file or ~/.xsession file. If neither of those exist, you can always do it from the command line.

text stolen from http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/swapx.html [berkeley.edu]

Re:put control there instead

[kfg (145172)]

And remember, whatever you do, do not use what you have just learned here to remap your collegue's keyboard when goes out for lunch. It would cause him a certain amount of consternation, especially if he isn't the sort that would know about these things.

Maximum effect is actually obtained by only changing a few keys, not just messing everything up.

But remember, if anyone should ask where you got the idea, I specifically said "do not."

KFG

Is this a joke?

[master_p (608214)]

Excuse me, but the world has more serious problems than this. I really can not explain how this made it on /., while more serious topics like a petition for adding garbage collection to C++ were rejected.

Re:Is this a joke?

[mrsbrisby (60242)]

Actually on the topic of C++... I think a petition for banning C++ forever is a much better idea.

I'll agree, unless someone can give me an example of what C++ is best suited for. I've tried every language that I can find at least twice, and I can't find anything that C++ is the best at, or even a reasonable middle-ground.

C is much easier to read, and if I want objects, Objective-C allows me to reuse my C code. At least then, I get an object oriented language. C++ is some weird class and template based language, that requires I either taxonimize everything, or degenerate into a slower and hard to read C.

I'm still unclear why we need four different casts, and I'm still unclear why it's a good idea to have two functions with the same name and data types (save the const or signed keywords, which aren't really supposed to modify the data type)- lest the evil C++ genies make my code call the wrong one.

I'm completely lost as to why it's a good idea making: if (a << 1) mean anything but to check if anything but the highest bit is set, or a[0] mean anything different than *a.

I can't figure out exactly how to control deallocation order when calling destructors during stack unwinds, and I can't figure out how to control allocation order before main().

I don't know why C++ insisted on being completely forwards and backwards incompatible with C, and adopt its name. It isn't a better C, it isn't even a logical extension of C.

I might be able to wrap my head around C++ better if I didn't know C, and expect C semantics, but damnit, that's awful hard to do when it's called C++.

So right now, I'll sign your petition, but if anyone comes up with an example of what C++ is best at, I'll have to retract my signature and simply sign the petition that demands C++ be called (!C)<C.

Is this a fucking joke?

[phlegmofdiscontent (459470)]

I mean, seriously, I know some people really hate the caps lock key (despite its usefulness to other people), but this is one guy who started a group on Google and acts like it's some massive grassroots campaign. I think Slashdot got punk'd on this one.

And really, if you don't like a key, remap it or remove it. I myself have removed the "Windows" key (it always interfered with my Doom playing) and the letter Q (because who the hell needs to use that one?).

Discriminatory

[LittleGuy (267282)]

If we get rid of the Caps Lock key, how will the Hard-Of-Hearing be able to read messages?

CapsUnlock

[dargaud (518470)]

Download and install CapsUnlock [brainsystems.com]. Problem solved. And you can still use it if you really want.

Get rid of Shift Instead?

[GoRK (10018)]

I knew a guy once who for a period of many months did not realize that the shift key in conjunction with alphabetic key on the keyboard made capital letters. He knew how to use the shift key - but he only used it for symbols and the like when a key was labelled for it. To type capital letters, he pressed CapsLock, typed the letter, then pressed CapsLock again. He never complained, and he had become very proficient with the technique by the time I showed him the alternative. I'm not sure I ever looked to see if he had changed his ways.

The Solution

[synesis (786756)]

1. Remove Caps key.
2. Add drop of super glue.
3. QUICKLY REPLACE KEY.
4. OH CRAP!

Disable Caps Lock Easily

[CritterNYC (190163)]

I have some simple registry files up that allow you to easily disable caps lock, turn it into a control key or swap it with the left control key (for some old school keyboarding goodness). Just head to Disable Caps Lock [johnhaller.com].

Re:Best Real Estate?

[$RANDOMLUSER (804576)]

That's absolutely right. If God hadn't meant for the Control key to be next to the "A" key, he wouldn't have put it there on the ADM3A.