Is Caps Lock Dead?

An anonymous reader asks "Recently I have noticed that I haven't used caps lock other for any purpose other than hitting it by accident. Once upon a time, COBOL was written in all caps, and other languages like BASIC and Fortran were not case sensitive. Capitals were the way to go for writing code. Does the caps lock key serve any purpose any more, and if not, should it be removed, moved, or replaced?"

It should be replaced...

[Anonymous Coward]

...with another Windows key.

thwart

[radoni]

piracy

eliminate capslock key

OF COURSE IT SERVES A PURPOSE

[blue_adept]

how else are you supposed to shout?

EASY IQ DETECTION

[Anonymous Coward]

If caps lock were gone, how would morons get their misdirected points across?

We should keep capslock

[inode_buddha]

else it would be *very* discriminating against all those AOL'ers.

OMG!

[Ikari Gendou]

oF COURSE cAPSlOCK IS STILL USEFUL! iMAGINE ALL THE USERS OF THE WORLD NOT ABLE TO SEND LONG SHOUTING EMAILS IF cAPSlOCK WAS REMOVED! wHAT WOULD THEY DO THEN?! sTaRt UsInG aLt-ShIfT? tHE HORROR!

Now now young man

[kunudo]

Keep it as a tribute to the coders of old. It's like having a museum in your keyboard. You can even play with the exibit.

for actually using a computer (writing documents?)

[atarione]

Notice the capital "N" at the start of this sentence. When actually writing something, the caps lock key is quite useful indeed. Most people (maybe not on slashdot) but in the real world most people use their computers for writing documents and whatnot and Caps Lock is indeed most usefull for these things.

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[Anonymous Coward]

I find a drop of superglue under the key ensures its continued usefulness.

IT HAS IT'S USES

[mizhi]

FOR IMPERSONATING PHBS IN EMAILS.

And for getting denied a posting on slashdot.

Re:EASY IQ DETECTION

[Anonymous Coward]

If caps lock were gone, how would morons get their misdirected points across?

IT'S SPELLED MORANS, YOU DUMMY.

Re:Yes.

[geoffspear]

And do you give your constants names so long that you really need to use your caps lock key instead of just using shift?

Nigerian businessmen!

[Anonymous Coward]

IF YOU GET RID OF CAPS LOCK I CANT REQUEST YOUR KIND HELP TO SEND $100,000,000 (ONE-HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS) FROM THE LATE COLONEL MUSHA. WHO DIED AT THE WEEKEND IN A TERRIBLE TRADEGEY.

PLEASE, THINK OF THE CAPS LOCK
GOD BLESS.

blehblehblehbleh slashdot is moaning about yellllllllllllllllllling blah blah stupid thing.

Re:OF COURSE IT SERVES A PURPOSE

[abhisarda]

yeah, how else will those nigerian spammers get their message across that they have FORTY MILLION DOLLARS(40,000,000 $) AND ARE WILLING TO GIVE YOU A SHARE OF IT IF YOU ARE A NOOB.

Re:Changed since 2000?

[Anonymous Coward]

That was pre-9/11. In the post 9/11 world, CAPS LOCK is a tool of terrorism and must be abolished.

Re:for actually using a computer (writing document

[Ieshan]

Are you trying to say that you hit the caps key twice for every capital letter you need to type that's not in a big row of them? You really hit the caps key at the start of every sentence?

Yeesh, mate. Shift. SHIFT.

Re:for actually using a computer (writing document

[colinramsay]

"Notice the capital "N" at the start of this sentence."

Yeah I see it. You're surely not suggesting that you used the caps lock key for that little "N" are you? If you are then not on is that a truly awful example of why caps lock is useful, it also shows that you have no idea of how to efficiently use your keyboard.

it sould be replaced by..

[lc_overlord]

For Windows: instant reboot of system key.
For Mac: a second mousebutton replacement key.
For Linux: play that anoying sound clip of linus pronoucing linux key.

Re:OF COURSE IT SERVES A PURPOSE

[Anonymous Coward]

Obligatory Maddox quote

SEVEN SIXTEENTHS OF ONE INCH [xmission.com]

THAT'S THE DISTANCE YOU'D HAVE TO MOVE YOUR PINKY IN ORDER TO NOT SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT. I know the burden of pressing shift to capitalize is a great one, but c'mon Turing, you can do better than that. I used to type emails in caps like yours, but then I decided that I didn't want a job mixing concrete.

Re:OF COURSE IT SERVES A PURPOSE

[bigben7187]

but if you SHOUT WITH CAPSLOCK ON11 you still have to hit shift for "!" to come out, so you might as well not use caps...

Re:for actually using a computer (writing document

[atarione]

MY BAD, I ADMIT I WAS OUT FOR A BIT LAST NIGHT, and I'm not in top form i indeed got mixed up with the SHIFT KEY.

I appologize to Slashdot and to the "Shift Key" for any Confusion on my part.... again my bad.

in a pinch caps lock might work as a "ANY" key???

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

When would I need to do this? When sending email to an AOL user?

I use it.

[mooredav]

In fact, I'm developing an application right now that requires Caps Lock.

Press CAPS LOCK to proceed.

Press SCROLL LOCK to cancel.

Please don't take my CAPS away from me!

Nigerian business men

[jlar]

Of course caps lock is still necessary. I receive lots of emails from Nigerian business men in all capital letters. Without caps lock it would be terribly difficult for them to write all these excellent business proposals.

Re:OMG! (too much trouble)

[Ieshan]

I'm pretty sure the #1 Tech Support answer for Everything is "Reboot", which is now called all sorts of high-tech things like "Power Cycle".

I hate being told to "Power Cycle". It must be someplace in the Comcast tech-support handbook. But it gives me a good chuckle.

Re:Not everyone is a programer

[FrostedWheat]

The Amiga had a Help key. I believe it was where the PC's Escape key is. Or it could be on the other side not sure, been a while. The thing that always amused me was the fact that for most programs, even Workbench, the help key did nothing. Not a thing.

They might as well have renamed it the 'RTFM' key.

hee

[teknokracy]

Gee, by removing the Capslock key i'd hate to eliminate all those internet users WHO INSIST ON TYPING EVERYTHING IN ALL CAPS. Then again, i havent used that key for a while. Why not replace it with a dedicated ctrl-alt-del button :P

WTF!!!

[soloport]

YOU SUCK POND WATER!

(ok, maybe that's yet-another good reason)

Re:It should be replaced...

[whiteranger99x]

All I know is that everytime I play Diablo 2 or another game, the Windows Key become the absolute BANE OF MY EXISTENCE! X(

Dear Slashdot

[Pan T. Hose]

Dear Slashdot,

Very recently, to my unimaginable surprise, I have noticed that I haven't used the tilde key for any purpose other than hitting it by accident. I know that once upon a time people were using the tilde key. They were using it like there was no tomorrow. I don't use it now, though, which makes me very sad. Does the tilde key serve any purpose any more? Does it still serve any purpose whatsoever? If not, will it ever serve a purpose? Will it ever make any sense? If not, should it be removed, moved, or replaced? If so, will we be able to see it in museum? What if later I find some use for this key, but it will have been gone long ago? What then? What will be the future of this little key? What, I ask?

Thank you very much, Slashdot, for your answer!

Sincerely,
Concerned reader.

P.S. I love reading Slashdot and especially the Ask Slashdot section, when people always ask so interesting questions! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! (Oh, God damn it! I used caps lock!)

Re:OF COURSE IT SERVES A PURPOSE

[isthisthingon]

Kidding (somewhat) aside, if you've ever read anthing in legalese there is ALWAYS at least one obligatory section that warrants being written in all caps.

I call this the:

"If you don't read anything else in this contract read this one,

or our hungry attack lawyers will eat you and your young
for lunch."

clause.

I use it all the time

[ShieldW0lf]

There are all sorts of programming situations where having a caps lock key helps keep things readable. For example...

SELECT *
FROM tblWhatever a
INNER JOIN tblYaddaYadda b
ON a.ID = b.ID
WHERE b.foo = 1

Not to mention data entry work... lots of places that do data entry use all caps.

Oh, and did I mention that THIS IS A STUPID ARTICLE? SURELY THERE MUST BE SOMETHING EXCITING ENOUGH GOING ON IN THE WORLD THAT WE DON'T NEED TO PUT THIS CRAP ON THE FRONT PAGE OF THE SITE?

How to defeat 13-year-old AOLers

[Schattenfreude]

My little brother used to sneak on my computer all the time before he got a decent laptop, and I'd always be annoyed to find the caps lock key on from whatever flaming/shouting/n00bing he was doing there. So one day I remapped caps lock to switch to a Cyrillic keyboard--it helps a lot with my Russian homework, and I never did find it enabled again after my brother had been using my computer.

Re:Swap caps lock and control

[jrockway]

But real men SURELY don't have clippy tell them how to use the editor. [sourceforge.net]

I don't see that 'feature' in emacs ;)

easy solution...

[bobsalt]

make the CAPS lock key the "any key"

Caps Lock has another very important purpose

[commodoresloat]

YELLING!!!

Is capslock dead?

[Anonymous Coward]

NOPE, I DON'T THINK IT IS...

As an ex-tech support...

[cgenman]

I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but every now and then while working as tech support I'd have to tell people to reboot their computer rapidly using the reset button. Sure, turning the thing off and unplugging it for a while would also generally work, but by that time the people wanted the solution that most closely resembled KICKING THE F*%KER IN THE TEETH!!!!

CAPS LOCK IS NOT DEAD

[melted]

YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!

Re:Caps Lock has another very important purpose

[pebs]

YELLING!!!

Call me crazy, but I HOLD DOWN SHIFT for YELLING!!!

Re:Swap caps lock and control

[jonadab]

> If you're an Emacs user, having the capslock key mapped to control is the
> ONLY way to fly.

No, there is another. I have ctrl under my right pinky (home position). BTW,
shift is under my left pinky (home position). I have an Avant keyboard, so my
layout is as custom as I want it to be. It's *mostly* QWERTY, but I've made
some very key[1] changes. Central to these changes is removing the need to
hyperextend my pinkies on a constant basis.

Incidentally, there is no CAPSLOCK in my layout; if I want capital letters,
I'll type capital letters using shift; that's part of what it's there for.

I do have a ctrl key in the bottom left, which I can use for Ctrl-C and Ctrl-X
and Ctrl-V when my right hand is off the keyboard (e.g., on the mouse), but for
most ctrl combinations I use the right ctrl, which as noted is a home position.

[1] I didn't even *notice* that pun until I hit Preview. Honest.

CAPS LOCK.

[becauseiamgod]

.. is like cruise control for cool!

MAKE PEOPLE RICH WITH MAILS IN ALL CAPS

[kwench]

JUST RECENTLY I RECEIVED A MAIL FROM A BUSINESS MAN FROM AFRICA OFFERING ME USD 50,000,000 (IN WORDS? FIFTY-FIVE MILLION US DOLLARS).

OF COURSE? IT WAS QUITE HARD FOR ME TO READ HIS LETTER? AFTER ALL? AS A NATIVE FRENCH SPEAKER (HE IS COMING FROM COTE D'IVORE) HE IS NOT USED TO THIS STRANGE ENGLISH GRAMMAR. AND THEN HE IS AVOIDING ALL THESE STUPID EXTRA SYMBOLS LIKE , . AND :? HE SIMPLE WRITES AN QUESTION TAG INSTEAD?

BUT WHAT WOULD YOU DO? I PERSONALLY THINK THAT IT'S OK HAVING TO READ THESE COMPLICATED EYES HURTING EMAILS? AFTER ALL? IT'S ABOUT FIFTY-FIVE MILLION US DOLLARS.

FROM KWENCH? MAY GOD BLESS YOU
---

this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it. this Text here in sometimes Caps and sometimes none caps is used to break slashdots lameness filter. Just ignore it. Heck, haven't I written lots of comments and even submitted a story on proper pattern recognition? if people'd just listen to me... then this filter wouldn't be so easy to break it.

Re:OMG!

[wizrd_nml]

(CAPSLOCK)I(CAPSLOCK) have met so many people that use (CAPSLOCK)CAPS(CAPSLOCK) (CAPSLOCK)LOCK(CAPSLOCK) to capitalise just the first letter of every sentence (or every word in a title). (CAPSLOCK)I(CAPSLOCK) call that the (CAPSLOCK)C(CAPSLOCK)an't-(CAPSLOCK)P(CAPSLOCK)ush -(CAPSLOCK)M(CAPSLOCK)ore-(CAPSLOCK)T(CAPSLOCK)han -(CAPSLOCK)O(CAPSLOCK)ne-(CAPSLOCK)K(CAPSLOCK)ey-( CAPSLOCK)A(CAPSLOCK)t-(CAPSLOCK)T(CAPSLOCK)he-(CAP SLOCK)S(CAPSLOCK)ame-(CAPSLOCK)T(CAPSLOCK)ime syndrome.

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[andy landy]

<pedant> That's not entirely correct. Old UNIX keyboards had Caps lock and left-ctrl the other way round. I still have a PC keyboard with this layout. </pedant>

That being said, the only use that I can think of for caps lock is to keep us sysadmins busy answering "Why doesn't my password work" queries!

Terry Pratchett's Death

[Anonymous Coward]

Terry Pratchett's Death writes all the time in all-capitals.

If we removed it, PTerry would have hire a dwarf to keep pressed the Shift key while he is typing.

Re:Caps Lock has another very important purpose

[Dashing Leech]

YOU'RE CRAZY!

First BSD now this??

[rutgher]

Damn what's the world comming to, first BSD dying and all, and now capslock? It's a sad world indeed.

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather see it stay... as a support desk person, at least you'll know that your job is secure for awhile because of the dumb users not being able to log in bacuse either a) they forgot their password, or b) the damn caps lock in on and they don't know it.

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[trburkholder]

Try the "flashing VCR" repair, plain old black electrical tape.

Using Caps Lock *instead* of Shift!

[MooseGuy529]

I have a cousin who comes over to my house for holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc...), and he used to run a web page. I was showing him some stuff, and he went to go update the page. I noticed he was typing pretty slowly, especially around capitals, and then I looked down at the keyboard...

He was using Caps Lock twice for each capital letter!

Like instead of [SHIFT]H[/SHIFT]ello, world! he would do [CAPS LOCK/]H[CAPS LOCK/]ello, world!...

It was truly painful to watch. So, I told him, you shouldn't use the Caps Lock key like that, because that's what Shift is for! At the time, he got annoyed at me and said something like, I've already learned it this way, it's quicker for me...

Lo and behold, the next time he runs into me, he says thanks, I can type much faster now... it's now become a sort of joke between the two of us...

I can't figure out where he would learn that from, though... any ideas?

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[Quantuminium]

Didn't you know all touch typists have small chubby fingers?

Passing Time

[AcidPhish]

I still use the CAPS lock key as long as its associated with a LED of any colour.

Between periods of burst programming, when I blankly stare at the glowing CRT, I tend to pass time by repeatedly pressing the CAPS lock key and getting absorbed by the pulsating LED.

By the way, all CAPS in this message were intentionally made by pressing the 'Caps Lock' key.

Capslock? What's that?

[jeff_brh]

Um, what's a capslock? [memowe.de]

Re:No! I use CapsLock as my "ESC" key

[ignorant_newbie]

>Despite your low slashdot ID,
>you clearly didn't cut your teeth on a Sun
>mainframe. :)

And neither did you, given that Sun doesn't make mainframes, and never has.

Misuse of the word 'mainframe' in popular media is starting to really piss me off ( just watched 'the Net' a couple of hours ago... ) but on slashdot? come on. too many of us are going to realize that you're 12 and running winme.