Random KeebThoughts:

For instance: I recently autohotkey changed capslock → ctrl. GREAT idea.

I can’t think of anything else right now but feel free, anyone, to reply with your own thoughts about keebs you may randomly have, yourself

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Why does the Caps Lock key get prime keyboard real-estate? I love that I can change it’s function, but why does the key have to say Caps Lock. How many people toggle the Caps Lock so frequently that they need a dedicated key for it?

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The glib answer is “Because Selectric.”

Many typewriters had put Shift Lock to the left of ‘A’ (English layout), and the IBM Selectric with their easy adaptability to terminal use meant that it got ensconced there for a good while, even if it didn’t DO much. There was a period of sanity when dedicated terminal hardware couldn’t do mixed case so Control found its way to that spot, but once lowercase reappeared as an option and word processing became a viable use case for computers and their keyboards, Caps Lock (an evolution of Shift Lock) reappeared with gusto, though not always with its previous prime real estate. Once the IBM PC-AT took over and made the Model M’s enhanced 101/102 layout, which was even more Selectric-like than the Model F’s, a de facto standard, that was it, with the Unix-influenced boards like the HHKB as lonely holdouts. I’d be speculating, but I’d imagine the switch back was made for the Model M because so many more people who were not “computer people” and whose office skills likely included typewriter training, now found themselves using PCs every day.

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AHK actually works quite well, but it is tied to its computer. Most decent boards, and even many that are pretty crap, can be remapped to make that change persistent within the keyboard. On a recent board I did, I used hold-tap to leave the CapsLock function where it is on Tap, but holding it down is a FN-like momentary layer shift.

On a somewhat related note, if you happen to have an XT or M0110-like layout with numpad but no nav cluster, it’s particularly helpful that the standard implementation is that when numlock is on, Shift+numpad will perform the nav action for the 10 keys with a second mapping.

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It still trips me out a bit that some of the fastest typers use CapsLock instead of Shift. It makes sense but it seems so weird when you’re used to holding Shift.

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I’m wondering how much peoples’ switch preferences is determined by when they got into the hobby.

I’ve used a bunch of newer and “better” switches, but I always end up back at Cherry linear for MX boards. All the newer stuff just feels and sounds off to me. TTC Silent Frozen v2 being the one exception I’ve found.

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