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. "
Data entry issues (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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.
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.
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:Helpful image to pass along (Score:2, Informative)
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:put control there instead (Score:2, Informative)
CapsUnlock (Score:5, Informative)
While we're at it, War on Backslash (Score:2, Informative)
Our poor friend the backslash has been warped into a disgusting visage of its former self. It's begging to be taken off end users' keyboards. It can't take being typed into browser address fields anymore. It wants us to take it out back and, with a lone tear, put it down for good. And I think we all know the source of our friend's misery: Windows.
I need my CAPSLOCK (Score:2, Informative)
Jaysyn
Disable Caps Lock Easily (Score:4, Informative)
How to do it on Windows (Score:3, Informative)
------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,1d,0
------------
If you want to replace it with Escape instead, use this:
------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,01,0
------------
You'll need to remove some spurious spaces added by Slashcode (in "Keyboard" and before "3a"). Note that this works on the scancode level and will affect all users and applications, including DirectX ones. It's as close as you can get to physically rewiring the key. You need to reboot for it to take effect. (Stolen from here [vim.org] and here [manicai.net].)
cat ~/.xmodmap (Score:3, Informative)
keysym Caps_Lock = Escape
Happy vimming
Re:THINK OF THE DATA ENTRY PEOPLE!!! (Score:1, Informative)
I use CAPS LOCK everyday. (Score:2, Informative)
It is shortsighted to declare a key useless. And arrogant. My suggestion for people who want to eliminate the key:
LEARN TO TYPE.
Then you won't go around accidentally hitting keys whose value you are too ignorant to appreciate.
Re:First post? (Score:2, Informative)
so long
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.
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
Comment removed (Score:2, Informative)
The reason why CAPS LOCK is where it is. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:1, Informative)
Case studies in the '80s found that this was true only on monochrome monitors without lowercase descenders. Otherwise, all uppercase text slows reading by as much as half. The reader is sometimes reduced to reading some uppercase
words letter-by-letter until enough letters are read for the reader to guess the word within the context. This can also lead to reader guess the wrong word (if trying to read to fast) and decreasing reading comprehension. Lowercase ascenders and descenders significantly increase whole word recognition.
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.
Re:Is this a joke? (Score:2, Informative)
Let me try my hand at an answer for you, altwough we're "a bit" offtopic here :).
When properly written C++ can be very easy to read (but then again, one can write unreadable code in any language).
Also, you can write C++ code completly without either classes or templates.
C++ also fixes (or offers alternatives to) a lot of problems unresolved in C like namespaces, extensible IO library, a typesafe alternative to C macros, extensible type system etc. All of these can be easily abused (so one could argue that it only adds complications) but that's more of a matter of writing good code than a C++ problem.
The four casts state intent much better than the C cast; It's also easier to grep/search through the code to locate casts.
iostreams are a decent answer for the first example (B. Stroustrup explained in his book why the shift operator was chosen and it seemed like a good enough reason for me).
The iostreams design is among the most powerfull and flexible input/output interfaces I've ever seen.
Regarding your second example, how about accessing custom container elements by key, like for example:
I think the only reason not to see these is coming to C++ with a C/other language mind-frame and saying "I can progam C just fine in C; why would I do it in C++"?
Static functions allowing access to global resources? Used like this, the pointers are allocated upon first access and deallocated in reverse order.
Actually I think C++ bent over backwards to remain (mostly) compatible with C (this is why the macros-as-functions were not completely eliminated for example).
I think it is a better C in the sense that it can do what C does (and much more), using safer code and avoiding C's pitfalls (although unfortunately C++ comes with pitfalls of it's own).
Then you're not really evaluating C++, but (again), writing C code in C++ (which is a different matter alltogether); It's not really the best frame of mind for evaluating the strengths of a language, as it ignores all advantages C++ would provide that are not there in C.
For some examples of C++ advantages over C (out of the top of my head):
Re:The One-Point-Five Inches that Destroyed the Wo (Score:2, Informative)
While I admire your perspicacity and crazed ranting, I'm forced to take exception to one of your claims.
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.
There have been numerous studies (and at least one graph) that prove that global warming is solely due to the decline of pirates since the 1800's. You've obviously fallen victim to the scurillous propaganda spread by those devil-worshipping heathens from the SubGenius cult.
I look forward to your retraction.
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:2, Informative)
I remember it particularly well as it is on the brand new keyboard right in front of me (Dell).
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.
Re:Helpful image to pass along (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hardware solution (screwdriver) (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Next on Slashdot (Score:1, Informative)
Re:put control there instead (Score:2, Informative)
Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:swapcaps" in xorg.conf
Re:Hardware solution (screwdriver) (Score:2, 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:Useful for Vi users (Score:2, Informative)
wsconsctl -w map+="keysym Caps_Lock = Control_L" (to map capslock to control), or
wsconsctl -w map+="keysym Caps_Lock = Escape" (to map to escape, as parent did)
This will take effect immediately, but not survive a reboot... if you like it and want to enable it all the time, you can add a line to
mapfile
which turns Capslock into a Control key... or you can make your own mappings...
Full list of keysyms (on NetBSD) at
-yb
btw: NetBSD 4 is now in Beta... check The NetBSD site [netbsd.org] for an announcement coming soon...
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