War Declared on Caps Lock Key 1230
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 (Score:3, Funny)
http://users.mtrx.net/image.php?user=funnypics&im
Maybe you should post it in forums for the tards instead of declaring war on Uppercase.
Useful for Vi users (Score:5, Informative)
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 (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Re:Useful for Vi users (Score:3, Insightful)
The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the World (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:3, Interesting)
One of my ex-bosses got carpal from using escape-meta-alt-control-shift, no lie. He ended up buying one of those kinesis keyboards where the keys are arranged in two divots, one for each hand, so you don't have to move your hands at all to type. He can still only type for like half an hour at a time now.
Why bother? (Score:5, Funny)
RIP, my friend, RIP.
rick
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:3, Funny)
If you create an escape key that is cordless and which is placed strategically 10 km outside of your office, c
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:4, Funny)
See, now I know you're making stuff up.....those three words don't go together.
Layne
Thats some fast typing.... 620wpm?? (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:5, Funny)
Look at the stupider picture... (Score:5, Funny)
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... (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Informative)
It is the standard for all architectural drawings to use caps only. I believe it is also the cost for most engineering drawings (or it certainly was when I went through University).
Caps is used because:
- For reasons of clarity, it is preferred to use either just lower or just upper case.
- for shorter text (and most text on drawings is short), it is easier to read upper case only
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:3, Informative)
Really? (Score:3, Informative)
A single capital starting a Proper Noun is simple to pick out if everything else is in lower case...
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Insightful)
"Addresses should be typewritten or machine printed in dark ink on a light background using uppercase letters."
Re:Legitimate question... (Score:3, Insightful)
Your answer isn't an answer to my question as to why they didn't put in that feature. It is a statement that the software you are using is lacking that feature.
You have hit on one of my pet peeves of software development. A disconnect between the people that write the software and those that use and support the software.
The feature I mentioned really is easy to implement. Why was this simple, error preventing , time saving feature left out of this piece of soft
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:3, Insightful)
There are other solutions, how about making control-shift a standard for caps-lock? Or how about software that uppercases text entered in a particular field.
Surely some people remember SCROLL LOCK, which disappeared some years ago despite being carried forward for years.
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:3, Interesting)
Do have to wonder why this rant is against caps and not scroll lock.
gOOD lUCK (Score:5, Funny)
Re:gOOD lUCK (Score:5, Insightful)
Frankly...I find the idea of getting rid of the caps lock key...slightly appalling.
Re:gOOD lUCK (Score:4, Insightful)
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 (Score:3, Informative)
There is any number of utilities to remap it [google.com]. I swap its function with the left control key, so I can still use ALL CAPS if I actually need to.
Re:gOOD lUCK (Score:4, Insightful)
=Smidge=
Re:gOOD lUCK (Score:3, Insightful)
Better to put it out of range of the accidental finger.
Re:Valid points... but it still remains an issue (Score:3, Insightful)
There are several useless keys that could be removed; print screen, and pause and the other two "lock" keys: scroll lock and num lock. I hate the num lock key as I usually use it immediately after keying in what I thought were numbers only to move the
Re:Valid points... but it still remains an issue (Score:3, Insightful)
For me, that reason is Civilization (2, 3, and FreeCiv, haven't played 4). Diagonal directions are very important. Clicking the mouse can be error prone (though goto is useful). I could probably remap the directions nethack-style onto the keyboard, but I've never gotten used to those keybindings.
In fact, this makes playing Civ for me much less convenient on a laptop. I often e
Next on Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Stories to be seen soon on Slashdot:
"Jihad declared on SysRq key" and "Crusade declared on 'Scroll Lock' Key"
Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry (Score:2)
The CAPSoff blog. [blogspot.com]
Re:Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, read my CAPSoff blog entry (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Next on Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
Hey, come on now -- SysRq is cool!
Re:Next on Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Next on Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
Spoken like a true Slashdotter!
First post? (Score:2)
Anyhow, I think he's right. I haven't used the CAPS key since I programmed in FORTRAN. It's called Fortran now and accepts lower case like everything else. In fact, I didn't even use the caps key to type FORTRAN. I just held down the shift key with my little finger. So, what use is this CAPS key?
I actually use CAPS LOCK. (Score:3, Informative)
I actually use CAPS LOCK regularly when writing macros in C. It's much easier on the finger to not have to chord full words with the shift key pressed. Try it sometime. Once you get in the habit of using it on long stretches of capitalized letters (like CAPS LOCK), you'll never go back.
My biggest gripe is that I have to press shift to use the underscore key.
Re:First post? (Score:3, Funny)
frozen lima beans work well, too.
Best Real Estate? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Best Real Estate? (Score:4, Insightful)
What About INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY? (Score:5, Funny)
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
Please think of the COBOL programmers. (Score:2)
hurrah! (Score:3, Funny)
Couldn't agree more! (Score:5, Funny)
DOWN WITH CAPS LOCK!
Re:Couldn't agree more! (Score:3, Interesting)
They definitely switched them to be more like typewriters (though electric more than "mechanical"); which made sense—computers were being more used by non-technical people who also used typewriters and having the layouts as similar as possible was a good thing for most business users. Apparently, the difference in layouts particularly the location of the Caps Lock key was a frequent gripe of pre-PS/2 IBM customers.
Of c
Re:Couldn't agree more! (Score:3, Insightful)
With ctrl in the lower-left, you just hold it down with the edge of your palm and have all your fingers in their natural locations. Even Ctrl
not enough (Score:2, Insightful)
Slashdot and CapsLock (Score:5, Funny)
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Data entry issues (Score:5, Informative)
Why? (Score:2)
THINK OF THE DATA ENTRY PEOPLE!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ooops. Sorry, caps.
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!!! (Score:4, Informative)
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!!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Lost developer productivity? Health issues? (Score:2)
Const STATUS As String = "UNHAPPY"
no (Score:2)
Also, if this is the best thing you can figure out to challenge in life then you need to get a life.
While you are at it. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
A real keyboard distribution (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah! I completley agree with that statement. We should get rid of this OLD [wikipedia.org] keyboard layout intended for mechanical machines of 1868 and use something more in accord with current technology [wikipedia.org].
Seriously, I *know* it is possible to change the layout in the operating system (in the same way it is possible to remove the CAPSLOCK key from the keyboard) but I believe current typing courses should teach Dvorak, you really wold get impressed on the speed and commodity of typing with tha
Hope you'll win (Score:2)
(No key under the 'tab' key has been used for this post)
Real Programmers... (Score:2)
meh. (Score:2)
I certainly use it a lot more than scroll lock or the windows menu key.
Get rid of it for what? I may use it 5 minutes a year, but if it's not there, it's going to be missed...
And Num-Lock too! (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
mod (Score:2)
Suggestion... (Score:2)
maybe just a new placement? (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason why CAPS LOCK is where it is. (Score:5, Informative)
noble, but... (Score:2)
SELECT * FROM `table` WHERE
Interesting Idea, but .... (Score:2)
Maybe even a geocities webpage, for cryin out loud.
Useless? Not at all! (Score:4, Interesting)
This can be fixed in about five minutes (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Re:This can be fixed in about five minutes (Score:3, Informative)
In MacOS X 10.4:
System Preferences --> Keyboard & Mouse --> Keyboard --> Modifier Keys...
Set Caps Lock to Control.
I need it (Score:5, Funny)
put control there instead (Score:5, Informative)
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.htm
Re:put control there instead (Score:5, Funny)
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
How to do it on Windows (Score:3, Informative)
------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\ K eyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,00
------------
If you want to replace it with Escape instead, use this:
------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\K eyboard Layout]
Is this a joke? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Is this a joke? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Used Extensively in Construction Industry (Score:3, Interesting)
What will we have to do if caps lock goes away, press shift 5 times?
Is this a fucking joke? (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
CapsUnlock (Score:5, Informative)
Get rid of Shift Instead? (Score:5, Interesting)
reply.c (Score:3, Funny)
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
It's a post about the Caps Lock key!!! Of course, I'm yelling!!! God, this lameness filter is so bloody stupid!!!
The Solution (Score:5, Funny)
2. Add drop of super glue.
3. QUICKLY REPLACE KEY.
4. OH CRAP!
Disable Caps Lock Easily (Score:4, Informative)
cat ~/.xmodmap (Score:3, Informative)
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
Happy vimming
Put control back where it should be! (Score:3, Informative)
remove Lock = Caps_Lock
keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L
add Control = Control_L
Or,
Section "InputDevice"
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"
EndSection
-Josh
Predjudice against those with RSI! (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, without some sort of immediate feedback that one has entered caps lock mode, such a key indeed causes despair, but it is that lack of immediate feedback that is the problem, not the key itself. On old fashioned typewriters, you could easily feel when you were pressing caps lock. Computer manufacturers went about trying to drive everybody insane by removing this sensory feedback. (New technology always seems to be two steps forward, one step back -- if that.) Sun Microsystems made issues even worse by swapping the location of Control and CapsLock, so that when moving from one keyboard to another, you never know what you are going to get.
My Kinesis Contour Keyboard solves the problem elegantly by making a distinctive double buzz sound when you enter caps lock mode and a single buzz when you exit caps lock mode. Also, the keyboard is completely remappable, so you can put whatever key wherever you want it, or remove a key from the mapping altogether.
I suggest that this feedback and flexibility is what your movement should aim for, rather than trying to further cripple the rest of us.
NO! You know you don't want this! (Score:3, Insightful)
Keyboard manufacturers: DON'T MESS WITH MY KEYBOARD. If you want to differentiate your keyboard, you can start by adding extra keys, which can be mapped to various functions. DON'T screw with existing keys.
Typing on a non-standard keyboard is extremely irritating. The worst keyboard I've used is one where the function keys were, BY DEFAULT, assigned to be those "Internet keys" (Help, Open, Save, Email, Web, etc.). You had to press some "Fn Lock" key in order to make them behave like proper function keys should, and every time you rebooted, the "Fn Lock" status got cleared. The same keyboard also had a double-height Delete key, and rearranged the Insert, Home, End, PageUp and PageDown keys, so I'd always end up pressing the wrong one. Oh, and I think it might have even screwed with the positions of the cursor keys, too, but I don't remember that one for sure.
The position of the CapsLock key is annoying, and I can see the justification for swapping it with the left Control key, but the manufacturers will inevitably screw it up, so it would be best if they just leave the keyboard alone, and let the software guys handle remapping and such.
Providing alternate keycaps would be nice, though, so that the labels printed on the keys could be changed to match the software keymap.