11 ms·
Modern keyboards shouldn't still be designed to minimize typewriter jamming; they should instead be designed to be comfortable to use. I switched to a split (be
by Zambyte 3y ago
Modern keyboards shouldn't still be designed to minimize typewriter jamming; they should instead be designed to be comfortable to use. I switched to a split (because I have two hands), columnar (because my fingers do not angle to the left), Dvorak (because most of my typing is English-like) layout, and my hand and back (!) comfort has greatly improved.
Funnily enough though, even with all that, I still have a caps lock key. It's on my thumb cluster, and it doubles as my Alt key if I hold it. I use it for caps lock probably a few times a week. I get not putting caps lock where it commonly is on keyboards nowadays (I have control where it commonly is too), but I actually don't agree with getting rid of it entirely.
- jpalawaga 3y agoi don't think anyone is necessarily saying we need to get rid of caps lock--afterall, we still have scroll lock (side note: I often use the scrolllock button as a button to trigger screen recording. the light on my keyboard is a visual indicator of recording). just that it doesn't need to be in such a promient position. My capslock is actually escape, which is much more useful. The only thing I'd say is, esc is sometimes an overlooked button in software because it is so out of the way.
- Zambyte 3y ago> i don't think anyone is necessarily saying we need to get rid of caps lock I was replying to: > Caps Lock has no right to be on a modern keyboard. I think some people really do think capslock should just be removed entirely.
- petepete 3y agoOn the HHKB Caps Lock can be activated with a key combination, but there's no dedicated key. What requires more than a few consecutive capital letters these days?
- Zambyte 3y agoI also don't have a dedicated key, I share it with Alt. I use it when I write SQL sometimes, or other miscellaneous reasons.
- petepete 3y agoI write SQL every working day and do it all in lower case. There's a flawed argument that capitalised keywords make them stand out but I leave that to my editor.
- em-bee 3y agoi remapped caps-lock to compose. i haven't missed it yet.
- bee_rider 3y agoOn a more physically conventional keyboard without a thumb cluster, esc seems (oddly, given the switch) like a great spot to put a rarely-used key like caps lock. Tab is a bit of a an odd one. It is useful for printing, but almost entirely useless as an input… so useless in fact that it has been repurposed for auto-complete, which is really useful!
- godshatter 3y agoWhich leads to my gripe about how web forms and forms in other apps usually ignore tab order and often even the idea of tabbing between input fields altogether. Also, I've been using tabs for indentation (with spaces for alignment) in code for decades. Though linters are slowly killing that.
- bee_rider 3y agoThat’s true actually, tabs are obviously the superior option for indenting.
- JohnFen 3y agoI use the tab key every day to create tab characters.