Why You Should Not Swap Caps Lock With Control

[pitashen]

whatever that site says is quite a bit of nonsense. No one says you have to swap capslock key with the right-ctrl. I simply map some other totally useless key as Capslock and have 3 keys that work as ctrl.

[mr_a500]

Why would I ever need to type that?  Before you go into how difficult it would be to piss in a toilet on the ceiling without the proper gear and a tube, you have give me a reason as to why I would ever want to piss in a toilet on the ceiling.

I used to have a toilet on the ceiling, but I swapped it with a light fixture I used to piss on.

[sordna]

I AM TYPING CAPITAL LETTERS

None of that, I copy and pasted!

Why would I ever need to type that?  Before you go into how difficult it would be to piss in a toilet on the ceiling without the proper gear and a tube, you have give me a reason as to why I would ever want to piss in a toilet on the ceiling.

If you never need to type capital letters is a row, like IBM, or YMMV, or WYSIWIG, then you don't need caps lock. However, most people do need to type capital letters from time to time, and holding shift instead of pushing caps lock, throws off your touch typing, slows you down, and puts an enormous strain on your hands in comparison.

[mr_a500]

I think the last time I typed more than a few words in capital letters was back in 1983 when I was programming games on my TRS-80 - and that keyboard didn't have a Caps Lock. (didn't need one - it didn't have lowercase)

[funkymeeba]

If I were to swap the caps lock key with anything, it would probably be the `/~ key. I use that one a lot, and I never use caps lock.

That being said, I can't palm the ctrl key on my 87-key board. Are my fingers just too long? There is no comfortable way to do that. Therefore, this person has a dumb opinion. I won't even give him $3 for my visit to the site.

[inaneframe]

like IBM,

Three whole letters!!!

or YMMV,

Four, **** now we're really getting serious here! :becky:  Just for the record, I have never in my life typed that.

or WYSIWIG

Considering I don't live in the 1980s and most editors are WYSIWYG by default, I only need to distinguish when I use a particular editor that is not.

puts an enormous strain on your hands in comparison.

Perhaps for some people but, for me, writing with a pen puts about ten times the strain on my hand that having a couple acronyms to deal with every once in awhile does.  We're coming very close to the day when nobody has to know the pain that is a pen.  On another note, I would not mind the caps lock being where the windows key is now.  I think our main issue is with having such an under used key in such prime real estate, I'm sure that you can appreciate this, right?

[Thion]

I went dvorak on my qwerty and replaces Capslock with Backspace. Aside from an added modifier for Games, its the best solution for me since it reduces right pinkie travel.

[sordna]

Well, I appreciate both. On one computer, I have Caps Lock mapped as Alt Gr (which I hold down to activate a 2nd layer or my Poker which allows me to move the mouse pointer and do clicks). But I make Caps Lock operable by pushing both shifts:  setxkbmap -option shift:both_capslock   It's true I don't use it THAT much, in regular typing, but I do when I'm programming since lots of programs have constants written in caps.
Anyway, most of the time I'm on Kinesis Advantage keyboards so the regular Caps Lock doesn't seem much like prime real estate, because the primest real estate is the thumb keys! That's where Control, Alt, Enter, Backspace and even Tab live.

[inaneframe]

But I make Caps Lock operable by pushing both shifts:  setxkbmap -option shift:both_capslock   It's true I don't use it THAT much, in regular typing, but I do when I'm programming since lots of programs have constants written in caps.

Now see that is just ****ing genius!  I might be doing that myself now, thanks!

[sordna]

Another thing you can do (assuming you have a Kinesis) is use a footswitch for shift. That solves both the Caps Lock and the tired pinky problem. I'm using a footswitch every now and then but don't have the discipline to use it all the time.

[laffindude]

Who the **** presses control with their palm?  I applogise if you only have one hand but if you have two, please use the other one.  You'll be so much happier!

I do. I use the base of my pinky. Using pinking unnaturally contort my hand. I can have my hand on the mouse while doing ctrl+c and ctrl+v. Using 2 hands is slower.

[Lanx]

i was testing out the foot switch with my older mod... didn't have it in me to press it all the time, plus now my legs are usually elevated anyway, so that could be in a sense an ergonomic issue.

[zmurf]

Why the capslock hate? I find it useful. What do you guys do if you need to type a long string of capital letters, or just a few words? How do you do it? Try typing this: I AM TYPING CAPITAL LETTERS
Do you use the left shift, the right shift, or alternating both, depending on the letter to be capitalized?

The two or three times per year that I write long sentences with capital letters I can accept to be forced to hold town either shift key. All the other times I'm very happy to not being able to accidentally press caps lock and have to rewrite a entire sentence that happened to be caps locked. (sometimes I write quite a lot of text without actually looking at that screen that I'm writing on.. I have three other screens to watch... or I look out the window)

[sordna]

All the other times I'm very happy to not being able to accidentally press caps lock and have to rewrite a entire sentence that happened to be caps locked

I guess I'm spoiled by another Kinesis feature: Toggling the Caps Lock makes a buzz sound! 2 buzzes when Caps Lock is toggled on, and a single buzz when it's toggled off. So you can tell what state you toggled it to without looking. (You can turn the buzz off altogether of course, just like you can turn on/off the regular piezo click sound which I also find useful).

[dorkvader]

yeah, haptics is pretty excellent.

The two shift thing is genius, though.

[davkol]

For people using the US-internacional layout, CapsLock should be mapped to AltGr, so you can type accented letters with ease.
In this case, if you don't want to loose CapsLock functionality, you can remap CapsLock to “Insert” Key because “Insert” Key is repeatead on the numeric keypad.
(Attachment Link) 34834[/ATTACH]

This is the remapping I did on my computer:
AltGr -> CapsLock
CapsLock -> Insert

I use Colemak and write a lot in Czech. AltGr under '>', or better under 'M' is more ergonomic than anywhere else, because I can press it with right thumb without moving my hands from home position.

Caps Lock is a second backspace for me. Hitting Control with your palm seems stupid, and for people with an fn key, it's anything but useful to do that.

Agreed. Caps Lock used as Backspace feels much better.

[xorxpto]

This is the remapping I did on my computer:
AltGr -> CapsLock
CapsLock -> Insert

I use Colemak and write a lot in Czech. AltGr under '>', or better under 'M' is more ergonomic than anywhere else, because I can press it with right thumb without moving my hands from home position.

The idea is to have two AltGr keys, one in the right side (normal position, under '>') and the other on the left side, where Capslock is.
Doing so, you can press AltGr with one hand and the accented letter with the other hand.
(like having a second pair of shift keys)

[davkol]

The idea is to have two AltGr keys, one in the right side (normal position, under '>') and the other on the left side, where Capslock is.
Doing so, you can press AltGr with one hand and the accented letter with the other hand.
(like having a second pair of shift keys)

I get it now. But it'd mean losing left backspace. I've even thought about it because I'm having trouble with AltGr under '/'...