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.
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'.
CAD guy here. We have lots of drawings where the convention is to put all text in caps. I use capslock all the time.
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 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.
> 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.
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.