Slashdot Mirror
Google Wants To Take Away Your Capslock Key
heptapod writes "Slashdot reported earlier about Google's Chrome notebook and keen-eyed readers would have noticed the lack of a caps lock key. 'According to Google, this will improve the quality of the comments, because people will not be able to write all in capital letters. I'm not a fan of the caps lock key myself. I never use it, so it can go to hell, for all I'm concerned. But taking away choice from people is not good, especially when this is not going to improve the quality of comments.'"
Those of us who use it sparingly or for specialized reasons will be deprived of it. And those who USE IT TO ON EVERYTHING WITHOUT REALIZING IT'S THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING will still be stupid. And stupid people will find a way to be annoying no matter what you do.
You could take every key but "a" away and websites/services will still be filled with denizens sporting aol email addressees posting:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
And stupid people will find a way to be annoying no matter what you do.
Like just holding down the shift key?
My work here is dung.
As much as I hate the caps lock key (reassigned mine to be an extra Esc), I just submitted a bug on Chrome that it doesn't have a command line --geometry option, which I consider a pseudo standard thing for X apps. I can't help but see that Google is going from the mostly standards compliant company they once were to becoming a Microsoft as far as following standards goes. I'm sure there are other examples people will bring up and maybe a comment along the lines of "They were never standards compliant".
OMG WTF GGL?
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
The Caps Lock key is an arcane relic of the ancient IBM keyboards and for most users, it's completely unnecessary. It screws up passwords, for one, and it is in a position that is way too easy to hit accidentally. Besides, there's been a movement to ditch it for ages now, and thus far nobody's complained. Did nobody notice that the OLPC computer also ditched the CapsLock? Besides, anyone who still wants to use all caps still has the shift button.
My postings are informational and does not constitute legal advice. Act on it at your risk.
So this means no more cruise control for cool???????
They should probably take away all the other keys too.......
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
I'm a database programmer, and I use caps lock on a regular basis. It's off by default, of course, but if I had to type stuff like this all day without caps lock I'd go mad:
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW part_glass_part2 AS
SELECT part_key, sum(line_sqft) AS sum_sqft, sum(line_lbs) AS sum_lbs
FROM part_glass_part1
GROUP BY 1;
...I couldn't use Emacs or shell editing without it. Beats me why it's labelled 'caps lock', though --- the other control keys on the keyboard are all labelled 'Ctrl'.
Why the continuing bother with Caps Lock, SysRq, Scroll Lock, and Break? Does anyone use them? at least, any number of people above statistical noise?
How about the Windows and Menu keys? anybody use that on a regular basis? would a statistically meaningful number miss them?
And while we're at it, usage of the Function keys (12 of them!) seems vanishingly small.
Nineteen nigh-unto-unused keys, times how many keyboards out there with them?
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
The company I work for during the day actually uses an archaic system with terminal menus and command line commands that are named in all capital letters. They use the caps lock key excessively. I've seen other systems like this in use for inventory systems at stores and warehouses too. You probably have as well.
CAD guy here. We have lots of drawings where the convention is to put all text in caps. I use capslock all the time.
Perhaps the functionality should be retained, but entered via a function key or a two-key combination that requires pressing to enter that mode.
This way, people who need to type extended all-caps can still do so, but it won't be mistakenly keyed by dolts who hit it as a shift key and then flail away without returning it to lower case. Of course, people who want to be annoying and "shout" will still be able to do so, but it might cut down on the inadvertant clueless shouting.
For modern web-based applications, you are correct that there is little or no reason for the Caps Lock key.
But for the MILLIONS of people whose job requires them to use antiquated legacy systems, it is often essential.
The largely character-based systems used for accounting, order entry, invoicing, and other core functions are often accessed through terminal emulation software or first generation client-server software. These systems often have a great number of "lookup" codes for everything from SKU to client numbers that fail when using lower case. Those still using first generation client-server software are especially inconvenienced as some of these programs have no option to remap the keyboard.
The sheer volume and costs of re-engineering these systems mean that they will be with us for years to come, no matter how ugly and inefficient when compared to modern systems.
(Well, you did ask.)
Live Long and Prosper - Thanks Leonard. You are missed.
I use NumLock. Well, I make sure it's always on. I guess I never un-use NumLock. At least when using a full-size keyboard.
Pause/Break is handy in Windows. Try hitting Win-Pause sometime.
It has already been reported that you can change the search key back into a caps lock key if you so desire through a preference. http://www.istartedsomething.com/20101208/fear-not-chrome-os-has-caps-lock/
i cant remember ever running into software which was case-sensitive when it comes to license keys..
but yeah, it isnt all that usefull of a key.. but taking it away to "improve the quality of comments" is just stupid
People, what a bunch of bastards
I assume this bit is from a Slashdot posting and not Google:
Attention people -- keyboards are use for more than posting comments.
What the hell kind of drivel is this?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
How about å, ä, ö, and ø?
I know quite a few Vikings who are pissed at the lack of it in plain ASCII.
Unfortunately, Columbians have taken control of the matter from Erkissonians. An now Göögle?!
Good luck creating architectural drawings. (IMAA)
It has been convention since the beginning of time to write everything in CAPs. Not that conventions can't change, but there is a whole system of communication in the construction industry related to the assumption that instructions and notations are always capitalized. Similar reason to why US construction is still Imperial, there is too much embodied energy in the current method to risk confusing it with a change to another system.
There is no need to use a SlashDot sig for SEO...
Pause is occasionally useful during PC repair since it'll freeze boot messages on the screen. CTRL-Break is functionally the same as CTRL-C in most places, just harder to type. Windows key-Pause brings up the System Properties applet on most versions of Windows.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Thai keyboards use it to switch to latin.
Personally I use the caps lock key to switch current keyboard layout (English/Russian). YEAH, IN SOVIET RUSSIA, CAPS LOCK USES YOU.
I've been using this Windows hack to turn my Caps Lock key into a regular old Shift key for about a year now. I hardly noticed, except I don't have sentences tHAT LOOK LIKE THIS ANYMORE.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
> Can you still buy netbooks with capslock? Yes? Then you still have choice.
In fact, you have more choice.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I did, but the only feeling I got was from all the people in my office looking at me funny.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
ah745-x8d8e-fe02w-8s89e
The program returned an error that said "It looks like you used lowercase letters. All serial numbers for this program have uppercase-only letters."
So whatever idiot programmed this knew to check to ensure the serial number didn't have lowercase numbers, and thought to return an error message to the user, but didn't think to just interpret lowercase as uppercase. Now, I'm not a programmer, but isn't the former actually more lines of code than just accepting lower or uppercase letters?
Now, thinking like a programmer, he was probably trying to teach the idiot user a lesson, but it really seemed like poor programming to me at the time. Aren't you guys supposed to be coddling the users?
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
I am subscribed to an e-mail list for people and families of people with a genetic disorder that causes a variety of symptoms often including some form of vision problems and anywhere from mild to severe mental retardation. My son has the disorder and the e-mail list is a vital tool for the community of people facing the challenges associated with it. At least one member of the list who has the disorder has difficulty reading lowercase letters.
SO FOR HER MANY PEOPLE TYPE THEIR E-MAILS LIKE THIS. YOU HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED TO SEE THIS AS SHOUTING. I WAS CONDITIONED THAT WAY TOO. BUT I HAVE SINCE LEARNED TO SEE THIS AS HELPING FRIENDS COMMUNICATE.
Simply because someone is conditioned differently from you, and has a different contextual interpretation of all caps, hardly makes them stupid. Unaware of your custom, sure. But I presume you were equally unaware of the custom of using all caps as a way to help people with disabilities read text on a screen better and more fully participate in online communities...UNTIL NOW.
French typing is high on the list of reasons I love my Mac. For me, it is simply the most intuitive input system for accented characters. I have long wished that I could emulate the Mac option key input method in Linux.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
And we can all safely assume none of those will be using a new laptop designed to be used on a pilot program to test a new operating system, or not?
So when you're designing the ROTFLcopter you can write "CROSS-SECTION!!!!1111".
If you really use it sparingly, you won't miss it. You'll hold down shift for an extra 4 seconds per week.
While their explanation about it improving comments is obviously bullshit, I like the decision anyway. Every single time I ever press caps lock, it's an accident.
If I may get overdramatic, having a caps lock key on your keyboard, is like having a bear trap on your desk. As long as you stay away from it, it's harmless. But it never under any circumstances ever ever helps you, and sometimes you accidently go near it.
Like the fire department. You only use that sparingly, right?
Having a caps lock key is like having a bear trap on your desk, if you work in an office with the occasional bear.
Most of the time it sits there taking up space. But when you use it, it's the right tool for the job.
Well, I've just always programmed in languages that are case sensitive ... C, C++, C#, Java ... the few I've bumped into that are case insensitive are scripting languages.
I guess I just learned that CAMEL, Camel, CaMel and camel are all different literals. It doesn't rely on an interpreter to say "oh, you meant this, I'll ignore it". I'm used to a compiler saying "I have no idea what camEl is".
And, from experience, I'd rather have camel case than that whole "Hungarian Notation" which more or less made variables pointlessly hard to read.
Guess it depends on what you learned with, but I find case-insensitive brings its own problems. ASCII provided us with a lexical sort ordering (for good or for ill), and throwing that away isn't always a good thing.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
That seems unlikely, since the key is still there.
I suspect that the reason they have set the default function of the key to be "Search" is that they believe the bulk of Chrome OS users will be better served a Search hotkey than by a rarely-used Caps Lock key, and that those for whom Caps Lock is needed will take advantage of the convenient option in the Settings menu to switch the function of the key to "Caps Lock".
Actually, I just pick a side and stick with it. Three fingered touch typing is not that hard. Personally, I'm in favor of the caps lock key, I just couldn't resist your challenge. I'll admit doing that all day would get uncomfortable.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I do something similar: I have two computers at my desk at work, and I set up the one on the left side left-handed, and the right one right-handed. It keeps both hands in good mousing shape, allows me to have the two keyboards butting up against each other in the middle, and makes it very easy to operate both machines at the same time.
Curiously, not only does no one else at my office do this, but they all use both computers right-handed. I'm looking out at a field of dozens and dozens of desks, and every single one has two keyboards with the mice on the right-hand side of both. If only right-hander supremacism would go away; they could gain a lot of productivity by using both mice at once!