The lack of need for Caps-Lock (was laptop keyboard replacement)
Kevin D. Clark
kclark at CetaceanNetworks.com
Thu Jul 31 11:46:12 EDT 2003
Derek Martin <gnhlug at sophic.org> writes:
> On Thu, Jul 31, 2003 at 09:58:51AM -0400, Kevin D. Clark wrote:
> > > So I guess that what we're saying is that people who don't use
> > > emacs need Caps-Lock, because their editors are toys? (For the humor
> > > impaired: :^) )
> >
> > (-: I guess that the vi folks could use "%" and "~". But I like
> > the emacs M-l, M-u, and M-c keys a lot better than vi's "~" key.
>
> I use vim, and I'm aware that it has such features, but I'm sorry, I
> can't see how punching capslock once when you start typing caps and a
> second time when you're done isn't less work than all those other key
> combinations. It's more efficient, and easier to remember too.
If you want to use your caps lock key, use it. Myself and other
people think that it is a useless key.
> I would also point out that a PC-style keyboard is closer to a manual
> typewriter keyboard, which has been around MUCH longer than Sun
> workstations have. Which is no doubt why it was designed that way...
I guess that the keyboards I "learned to type" on were more oriented
towards technical people and programmers using them, rather than
business folks. As such, the designers of these keyboards put the
control key in a useful spot, somewhere you could constantly use it
without your hand cramping up.
But the PC keyboard probably wasn't designed for people like me. Oh
well.
> I'm inclined to think that those who hate capslock, and who prefer sun
> keyboards, either learned to type on Suns, or never learned at all.
I can only recall one (non-PC) terminal in my past that had the
left control key somewhere other than next to the 'a' on a qwerty
keyboard. It was a Data-General terminal, that's all I can remember.
I didn't touch a Sun until I got my first Real Job, BTW.
Oh, it's true that I never learned to type, either. Taking shop
classes seemed a lot more interesting. The fact that I can't really
type doesn't seem to prevent me from belting out a lot of code.
Regards,
--kevin
--
Kevin D. Clark / Cetacean Networks / Portsmouth, N.H. (USA)
cetaceannetworks.com!kclark (GnuPG ID: B280F24E)
alumni.unh.edu!kdc
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