The standard computer keyboard needs a fourth lock key. After tapping this new lock key, it could be labled "char lock", whenever you want to type a greater than sign you could just push it, instead of having to remember to hold down that tired old shift key. Like wise for all the shift required character keys on the keyboard. Or maybe you could just replace the scroll lock key with my new key, as I seriously dobt most americans even know what scroll lock does, I sure don't . Of course keyboards would need to be outfitted with a little LED indicator to signify when char lock has been enabled.
-- ecolonsmak, Jun 26 2002

mOVE cAPS lOCK http://www.halfbake.../mOVE_20cAPS_20lOCK
I mention it here as it mentions keyboard remapping programs that may meet your needs. [st3f, Jun 26 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Scroll lock on-line http://members.aol....ollock/scroloff.htm
Not that it helps me understand. [Matty, Jun 26 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004]

Sounds like the shift lock as baked on any typewriter.
-- st3f, Jun 26 2002


Well, it could be added to a keyboard design without any need for software changes in the computer itself. This can all be done in the microcontroller in the keyboard itself. If people will pay for it, fine, go ahead. Not bothered by this personally.
-- 8th of 7, Jun 26 2002


This could be quite useful, if I've understood correctly, for HTML programming, where you use <> and " a lot, but don't want ALL your characters in CAPS. And I almost always use the numpad numbers rather than the keypad numbers anyway. I like this idea.
-- Matty, Jun 26 2002


<old fogey>The BBC Microcomputer had this exact key 20 years ago.</old fogey>
-- pottedstu, Jun 26 2002


bring back the old manual typewriter I say - plus ribbons and a bell rings at the end of the carriage.
-- po, Jun 26 2002


Naw, I say, abolish the lock keys. The numeric keypad should always function as numbers, nobody ever uses scroll lock, and caps lock is probably engadged accidentally ten times more often then it is engadged intentionally. As for the number row, just invert it. Symbols normally, numbers with shift.
-- JakePatterson, Jun 27 2002


I'm with po. While we're about it, I'd also like to be able to finish my writing projects by standing up, waving the paper in the air, and screaming, "COPY"!

Ah, those old-time newspaper days.

Can we also bring back the mimeograph machine? Mmmmm ... the smell of mimeo in the morning ...
-- 1percent, Jun 27 2002


The keyboard for IBM style PCs has forever had a problem with Caps Lock doing just the opposite of what it is SUPPOSED to do. I have worked with typewriters and computer keyboards for years and ALL of the others worked properly! nOW i HAVE TO KEEP CORRECTING THIS KIND OF bs! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. And yes, I have been a computer professional, both hardware and software since before there was a micro computer. Give me anything else except this stupid hardware with stupid software! And the business people who have insisted on it for years are just as stupid!
-- JLSeagull, Jun 27 2002


watch your blood pressure there, Jonathan.
-- po, Jun 27 2002


In what way does caps lock 'do just the opposite of what it is SUPPOSED to do'? It locks the caps on or off. It's not the same as shift lock on a typewriter.
-- angel, Jun 27 2002


JLSeagull: get a new keyboard. Yours is broken.
-- pottedstu, Jun 27 2002


The old Commodore PETs (Personal Electronic Transactor, IIRC) allowed a person to type !"#$%&'() without using the shift key. Anyone used to typing numbers using the top row, however, might have a problem: the numbers were only available on the numeric pad.
-- supercat, Jun 29 2002


aCTUALLY i'M WITH jlsEAGULL. The caps lock on PCs doesn't lock, it inverts, which is just increadibly dumb.
-- sadie, Jul 01 2002


Why would you put caps lock on if you were going to need to use small letters anyway?
-- [ sctld ], Jul 01 2002


I came up with the idea for a caps-inverting function (on a terminal program I wrote for the Commodore 64) before I saw anyone else do any such thing. The idea was that at the time it was normal to do an awful lot of stuff in allcaps, and lowercase letters would be needed only rarely. Having the caps-lock function work as a toggle allowed one to properly type thing like "JOHN McCAIN" or similar texts which had an occasional lowercase letter but were otherwise allcaps.

In practice, I found it useless but perhaps someone at IBM snuck into my home when I wasn't looking and copied that misfeature. I have no idea where else they got it unless perhaps deranged minds think alike.
-- supercat, Jul 01 2002


[supercat]: That's how caps lock works anyway, isn't it? With caps lock off, letters are normally lower case and the shift key makes them upper case; with caps lock on, letters are normally upper case and the shift key makes them lower case. I really don't see what the problem is here.
-- angel, Jul 02 2002


@#$% ^&!
-- thumbwax, Jul 02 2002


I don't see the usefulness of this. I can't believe anyone has this much cartoon cursing to write.
-- waugsqueke, Jul 02 2002


//That's how caps lock works anyway, isn't it?//

The PC was the first computer I'm aware of with a caps-lock key that worked that way, other than--as noted--my unreleased terminal program for the Commodore 64 which predates it.
-- supercat, Jul 02 2002


Sorry, [supercat], I misunderstood what you were saying. I may also be misremembering, but I think (answer is hazy - think again) the Dragon 32 worked like that (except that the caps lock 'key' wasn't a physical key).
-- angel, Jul 02 2002


I would gladly use one of these in my keyboarding class.
-- The Dark Lord Chuckles the Silly Piggy, Feb 25 2004



random, halfbakery