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Does anyone like having CAPSLOCK to the left of A? Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? I loved the CNTRL to the left of A that I grew up with, and

Does anyone like having CAPSLOCK to the left of A? Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? I loved the CNTRL to the left of A that I grew up with, and have remapped to get that position, ever since. I don't think I have ever used CAPSLOCK; I've used upper-case several times in this, and I simply hold down the SHIFT key while I type ... doesn't everyone do that?

cannam 7y ago
There definitely are people who toggle Caps Lock every time they want to type a capital letter. That's how my kids were taught to type at primary school, presumably because small hands have difficulty reaching with the Shift key, and it became a habit for a while - they got quite confused by the fact that I map it to Ctrl on my own keyboards and don't have a Caps Lock key anywhere.
huseyinkeles 7y ago
it's been so long for me as well that I remapped `caps lock` to `control` and never ever felt the necessity to use `caps lock`
ljosa 7y ago
After 20 years of not using caps lock, two things happened in the last couple of years: (1) I taught myself to touch type "properly," and (2) I started using an IBM XT keyboard (the first layout in the linked article) with caps lock easily reachable with the right palm. Now I use caps lock and love it. (I put "properly" in quotes because many---even most---type in a different way quite successfully. But for me, it really helped reduce the number of mistakes I made. With caps lock, I don't have to mess that up when I write LONG_UPPERCASE_CONSTANTS.)
dec0dedab0de 7y ago
I use caps lock anytime I have to capitalize more than 3 characters in a row. I just type way faster with it on instead of switching between the two shift keys.
- dmd 7y ago
  I've been typing for 35 years and in all that time I don't think I've ever once touched the right-shift key.
  - jbarberu 7y ago
    Impressive to write for 35 without needing to capitalize any of "qwertasdfgzxcvb"... ;)
    - dmd 7y ago
      The thing is - I have more than one finger on each hand.
      - kwoff 7y ago
        I only use left shift, too. I think it's just that right shift is way over to the right compared to left shift. Though I did take a proper typing class in high school, so I wonder how I managed to get away with that... :)
cesarb 7y ago
> Does anyone like having CAPSLOCK to the left of A? It's been in that position, above the left shift, in every keyboard I've ever used. And that includes typewriters, where the Caps Lock mechanically locked the shift key below it (which is mechanically linked to the shift key on the other side) on the down position; a quick press on the shift key released the lock. That is, it's a fact of life, like Ç being to the right of L; that key being anywhere else would be unusual. > Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? When typing a long sequence of uppercase characters, it's much more comfortable than holding down the shift key for the whole sequence. It affecting only letters, instead of everything like on a typewriter, doesn't matter much since it's normally used for a sequence of letters.
chadlavi 7y ago
I have caps remapped to Ctrl because it's a way better place for it, which means any time I type on someone else's keyboard I accidentally do a bunch of random all-caps.
vollmond 7y ago
I always remapped CAPSLOCK to ESC (for Vim), though I eventually built my own keyboard (Iris from https://keeb.io https://keeb.io) with QMK firmware and found the best of both worlds: the key left of A is ESC if tapped, but CTRL if held down.
- taborj 7y ago
  > the key left of A is ESC if tapped, but CTRL if held down. Ooh, I like that. Despite using a keyboard for many many hours every day, I've yet to build my own that exactly fits my needs; rather I remap and/or adapt. Gonna have to look into this.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - vollmond 7y ago
    Check out /r/mechanicalkeyboards and /r/olkb on Reddit. QMK seems to be the main firmware people use.
valerij 7y ago
deviant to sister comments i have mine mapped to CTRl+SHIFT+P and have that open command palette across all IDEs i use
tom_ 7y ago
I like caps lock there - I don't use it much, but it stops people putting Ctrl there instead, leaving us with asymmetrical meta keys...
red_admiral 7y ago
> Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? YES I DO, PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE ME :) Jokes aside - it's still useful when you're writing legal or other documents where certain phrases or sentences must be emphasised by placing them in all caps. A hold-out from the typewriter era when bold and italics were generally not available. I also use it occasionally for writing assembly language, where it's conventional to write the opcode mnemonics in upper case. It also helps when doing reports on the kind of spreadsheet that uses upper case keywords as a kind of primary key, because you need to interact with people who think a relational database is something to do with geneaology.
WorldMaker 7y ago
I picked up the habit of remapping CAPSLOCK to a left hand, easier to reach Backspace. For a relatively common editing key, backspace is normally so out-of-the-way and one-handed. We've started folks into the habit of using double-tap on Shift as CAPSLOCK on mobile and soft keyboards, and there's no real reason we couldn't bring that same innovation to hardware keyboards. It's still a surprise that it doesn't seem an option in macOS and Windows. Free up that key left of A for backspace, control, or escape for everybody.

cannam 7y ago

There definitely are people who toggle Caps Lock every time they want to type a capital letter. That's how my kids were taught to type at primary school, presumably because small hands have difficulty reaching with the Shift key, and it became a habit for a while - they got quite confused by the fact that I map it to Ctrl on my own keyboards and don't have a Caps Lock key anywhere.

huseyinkeles 7y ago

it's been so long for me as well that I remapped `caps lock` to `control` and never ever felt the necessity to use `caps lock`

ljosa 7y ago

After 20 years of not using caps lock, two things happened in the last couple of years: (1) I taught myself to touch type "properly," and (2) I started using an IBM XT keyboard (the first layout in the linked article) with caps lock easily reachable with the right palm. Now I use caps lock and love it. (I put "properly" in quotes because many---even most---type in a different way quite successfully. But for me, it really helped reduce the number of mistakes I made. With caps lock, I don't have to mess that up when I write LONG_UPPERCASE_CONSTANTS.)

dec0dedab0de 7y ago

I use caps lock anytime I have to capitalize more than 3 characters in a row. I just type way faster with it on instead of switching between the two shift keys.

dmd 7y ago
I've been typing for 35 years and in all that time I don't think I've ever once touched the right-shift key.
- jbarberu 7y ago
  Impressive to write for 35 without needing to capitalize any of "qwertasdfgzxcvb"... ;)
  - dmd 7y ago
    The thing is - I have more than one finger on each hand.
    - kwoff 7y ago
      I only use left shift, too. I think it's just that right shift is way over to the right compared to left shift. Though I did take a proper typing class in high school, so I wonder how I managed to get away with that... :)

cesarb 7y ago

> Does anyone like having CAPSLOCK to the left of A? It's been in that position, above the left shift, in every keyboard I've ever used. And that includes typewriters, where the Caps Lock mechanically locked the shift key below it (which is mechanically linked to the shift key on the other side) on the down position; a quick press on the shift key released the lock. That is, it's a fact of life, like Ç being to the right of L; that key being anywhere else would be unusual. > Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? When typing a long sequence of uppercase characters, it's much more comfortable than holding down the shift key for the whole sequence. It affecting only letters, instead of everything like on a typewriter, doesn't matter much since it's normally used for a sequence of letters.

chadlavi 7y ago

I have caps remapped to Ctrl because it's a way better place for it, which means any time I type on someone else's keyboard I accidentally do a bunch of random all-caps.

vollmond 7y ago

I always remapped CAPSLOCK to ESC (for Vim), though I eventually built my own keyboard (Iris from https://keeb.io https://keeb.io) with QMK firmware and found the best of both worlds: the key left of A is ESC if tapped, but CTRL if held down.

taborj 7y ago
> the key left of A is ESC if tapped, but CTRL if held down. Ooh, I like that. Despite using a keyboard for many many hours every day, I've yet to build my own that exactly fits my needs; rather I remap and/or adapt. Gonna have to look into this.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- vollmond 7y ago
  Check out /r/mechanicalkeyboards and /r/olkb on Reddit. QMK seems to be the main firmware people use.

valerij 7y ago

deviant to sister comments i have mine mapped to CTRl+SHIFT+P and have that open command palette across all IDEs i use

tom_ 7y ago

I like caps lock there - I don't use it much, but it stops people putting Ctrl there instead, leaving us with asymmetrical meta keys...

red_admiral 7y ago

> Indeed, does anyone ever actually use CAPSLOCK? YES I DO, PLEASE DO NOT JUDGE ME :) Jokes aside - it's still useful when you're writing legal or other documents where certain phrases or sentences must be emphasised by placing them in all caps. A hold-out from the typewriter era when bold and italics were generally not available. I also use it occasionally for writing assembly language, where it's conventional to write the opcode mnemonics in upper case. It also helps when doing reports on the kind of spreadsheet that uses upper case keywords as a kind of primary key, because you need to interact with people who think a relational database is something to do with geneaology.

WorldMaker 7y ago

I picked up the habit of remapping CAPSLOCK to a left hand, easier to reach Backspace. For a relatively common editing key, backspace is normally so out-of-the-way and one-handed. We've started folks into the habit of using double-tap on Shift as CAPSLOCK on mobile and soft keyboards, and there's no real reason we couldn't bring that same innovation to hardware keyboards. It's still a surprise that it doesn't seem an option in macOS and Windows. Free up that key left of A for backspace, control, or escape for everybody.