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Ask Slashdot: Why Is the Caps Lock Key Still So Prominent On Keyboards?
Esther Schindler writes: The developers at .io are into tracking things, I guess. In any case, a few weeks back they decided to track team performance in terms of keyboard and mouse activity during the working day. They installed a simple Chrome plugin on every Macbook and collected some statistics. For instance, developers have fewer keypresses than editors and managers—around 4k every day. Managers type more than 23k characters per day. And so on. Some pretty neat statistics.
But the piece that jumped out at me was this: "What's curious—the least popular keys are Capslock and Right Mouse Button. Somewhere around 0.1% of all keypresses together. It's time to make some changes to keyboards." I've been whining about this for years. Why is it that the least-used key on my keyboard is not just in a prominent position, but also bigger than most other keys? I can I invest in a real alternate keyboard with a different layout (my husband's a big fan of the Kinesis keyboards, initially to cope with carpal tunnel). But surely it's time to re-visit the standard key layout? What keys would you eliminate or re-arrange?
But the piece that jumped out at me was this: "What's curious—the least popular keys are Capslock and Right Mouse Button. Somewhere around 0.1% of all keypresses together. It's time to make some changes to keyboards." I've been whining about this for years. Why is it that the least-used key on my keyboard is not just in a prominent position, but also bigger than most other keys? I can I invest in a real alternate keyboard with a different layout (my husband's a big fan of the Kinesis keyboards, initially to cope with carpal tunnel). But surely it's time to re-visit the standard key layout? What keys would you eliminate or re-arrange?
"Why Is the Caps Lock Key Still So Prominent On Keyboards?"
HAS THE OP BEEN ON THE INTERNET AT ALL? EVER?
Although, I do like to imagine some of the rage typists are actually holding in the [Shift] key...
Obviously caps-lock is the least used key. you press it only once after boot, then no more.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Dude1:"HI GUYS! HOW IS EVERYONE?"
Dude2:"Hey. Doing okay. You?"
Dude1:"COULDN'T BE BETTER! ANYTHING GOING ON?"
Dude2:"There's a caps lock key on your keyboard, press it."
Dude1"OH! THANK YOU! IT'S SO MUCH EASIER TYPING NOW NOT HAVING TO HOLD SHIFT."
God spoke to me
SO THE OLD GEEZERS WHO ONLY GREW UP WITH TELETYPE MACHINES CAN COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
WHAT'S THAT YOU SAY?
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
I've long wanted a game where you are a wizard, and thieves steal your scrolls, unless you Scroll Lock. But then you can't use the scrolls, until you toggle it back. It would be pretty perfect.
Scroll Lock is legitimately used in spreadsheets, but very rarely today. It's generally good that there is some modal switch anyway. It's so rare to find some future expandable slots on a keyboard, you know?
Only crap keyboards have a power button.
The article also mentioned the right mouse button. My keyboard doesn't have one of those either.
Maybe it's time underscore was its own key anyway...
How about where the capslock is now