The lack of need for Caps-Lock (was laptop keyboard replacement)

[Kevin D. Clark]

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