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Am I the only one who actually uses caps-lock for its intended purpose on a regular basis? I use it pretty much any time I have to type more than two capital l
by MrRadar 10y ago
Am I the only one who actually uses caps-lock for its intended purpose on a regular basis? I use it pretty much any time I have to type more than two capital letters in a row, which is frequently when I'm programming.
- gunnihinn 10y agoNOT TO MENTION ALL THE SHOUTING ONE DOES IN COMMENT SECTIONS
- marinintim 10y agoDo you program in SQL? (I've just pressed Shift and released it after I typed SQL, hey) Using Caps Lock for its intended purpose means that it's another mode that you need mental resources to keep track of. Historical aside that's not related to your comment: early Soviet computers modeled after IBM PC had Latin key, that basically worked like Shift, but it changed layout from Cyrillic to Latin and vice versa. This idea died after MS Windows, that didn't (and still doesn't? I don't know) have this option, took over the market.
- sbuttgereit 10y agoI write quite a lot of SQL and PL/SQL. Yes, I use Caps Lock as intended.
- jimmaswell 10y agoHas anybody seriously been mentally bogged down by confusion from keeping in mind that they have caps lock on? That sounds entirely implausible.
- poopsintub 10y agoMy work Mac boots into windows, while my home Mac uses iOS. The keyboard change wasn't immediate, but it was done. If these people want to try something harder than caps lock and have their minds blown, they should learn to use VIM.
- JBiserkov 10y agoThere is an option in pgAdmin to automatically capitalize keywords. Last I checked though it capitalizes them only in pgAdmin - the actual .sql file is lowercase.
- flukus 10y agoPeople still use all caps for Sql?
- majewsky 10y agoI like to write the keywords in upper case to visually separate them from table/field names.
- WildUtah 10y agoI use caps lock for exactly what its intended purpose is: I use it as a control key, just like it was on the original IBM PC keyboard. Just remap ctrl to caps lock and you're set. As for switching languages, Apple puts that in a fine place by default. It's open-apple and spacebar. Just enough effort to remind you what you're doing with no awkward carpal tunnel key combinations.
- mynameisvlad 10y agoI mean, if you want to get historical, the position currently occupied by the Caps Lock was Shift Lock on typewriters, which did the same thing as Caps lock currently does except it affected all keys, not just letters.
- hermanhermitage 10y agoYes, the first computer keyboards I used had both shift lock and caps lock. If I miss anything, I would like it if shift + caps lock, behaved the same as shift lock.
- yyhhsj0521 10y agoI alleviate the pain on the joints of my little finger by mapping Capslock to Ctrl.
- hermanhermitage 10y agoI use it heavily in Asm,C,C++ for #define's, enums, etc where ALLCAPS or ALL_CAPS tends to be its own namespace for certain things.
- JoshTriplett 10y agoI've run into a few other people who do so, but I find that I type few enough capital letters that attempting to use an alternate, modal means of doing so (that behaves similar to the shift key but without affecting symbols) just slows me down, even when I want to write a CONSTANT_LIKE_THIS. I find it easy to type a long string of text with the shift key held down. Consider that typing the above constant with caps-lock would still involve pressing and releasing the shift key twice to type the underscores. I'm sure I could teach my fingers to type it that way automatically, but I find it much easier to have a single way of typing a capital letter rather than two. I use the caps lock key as an easier-to-hit Super key, which makes it easier to use all the window manager shortcuts that use the Super modifier.
- scrollaway 10y agoI have also mapped the capslock key to super, but FWIW I've had a lot less trouble hitting the actual super key ever since I started using my ring finger for it (I used to use, and see most people using either pinky or palm, both of which require moving the hand quite a bit).
- JoshTriplett 10y agoDepends on the placement and size of the standard super key on your keyboard. Some keyboards make it quite small.
- bufordsharkley 10y agoI use Caps Lock for all capitalization, in place of shift.
- userbinator 10y agoI know some people who use capslock instead of shift for producing even isolated capital letters, the idea being that hitting two keys in rapid succession, even if it means one more keystroke, could be easier than timing the hold and release of the shift key. The world's fastest typist apparently also uses the same technique: http://seanwrona.com/typing.php http://seanwrona.com/typing.php (see "typing tips" section)
- madeofpalk 10y agoI have a (journalist) friend who did this, but only because they didn't properly understand the shift key - she thought it only was used to access the alternate symbols on the number keys.
- bufordsharkley 10y agoI've always wanted to remap a keyboard (and do whatever else) so I could hit numbers/symbols in a modal manner with Caps Lock. I really, really hate chording.
- rwallace 10y agoSo do I. Good news, Windows has a feature called sticky keys that makes all the modal keys - shift, alt, ctrl - become modal.
- bufordsharkley 10y agoHmm, interesting. I'm running Ubuntu, so I feel that there must be a good way to hack into this myself (but honestly I'm not sure how to get started.)
- rconti 10y agoMy wife does this and it drove me insane when I first noticed. I think she avoids typing in front of me now :) The toggle-vs-coordination of keystrokes actually makes a fair bit of sense though; its not like we type that many capital letters in an average sentence. For a password which might have a handful of caps, though, it slows you down.
- dkbrk 10y agoLike many others I didn't originally learn typing in a structured manner. It used to be that I only ever used the left shift key. This works adequately, but means that when holding shift the finger positions for the left hand change. In short, it's a bad habit that hampers accuracy and speed, and may increase the risk of RSI. A couple of years back I made a concerted effort to learn the dvorak layout and have since become a fairly proficient touch-typist. Consequently, when I use a shift key I always use the hand on the opposite side to the one hitting the letter. My coordination is now good enough that I can type a sequence of capitals quickly and accurately using just the shift keys -- alternating to each side as required -- but that would be silly. I don't even think about using Caps Lock, now, it's just part of my muscle memory for when I type a sequence of capitals. I suspect that most people who don't see the use of Caps Lock always use just one of the shift keys and hold it down when typing a sequence of capitals.
- nkantar 10y agoI use Ctrl far more and have swapped the two.