A love letter to CAPS lock
Tags: productivity, discuss, typing, storytime
Published: 2024-03-12 01:23:48

In my childhood my favourite keys were `Caps Lock`, along with `Num lock` and `Scroll Lock`. It was because I could see a real-time impact by pressing them, that was the led that lit in my keyboard indicating that the respective key was on. I used to pretend I was sitting in a control room preparing for a launch mission: "Num Lock On! Scroll Lock On! Boosters starting! Hatch closed! Controls Online! Heads-up display! and Caps Lock On! ... Launching Satellite! (proceeds to press enter)". Those were fun times. (is it just me? or anyone else relates?)

Apart from imagining wild sci-fi fantasies, Caps-Lock also had a utility. I was no touch-typist back then, so it was pretty useful to turn on Caps-Lock AND GO FULL BURST MODE IN CAPITAL LETTERS WHEN WRITING HEADINGS IN MS-WORD.
One day I was at my friends house, I saw him touch-typing, and it was so cool... I was determined to learn it as well. There was one speciality in his way of touch-typing, that he didn't utilize `Shift` for capitalizing even a single letter. The way he did was when he had to capitalize a letter he tapped `Caps Lock` ON and then proceeded to type a letter and then instantly he would turn `Caps Lock` OFF. It was fascinating to watch him move his fingers so fluidly! Even though the way I was taught[^1] to touch-type was using `Shift` key to capitalize--the normal way--I remained fascinated with his way of using `Caps Lock`, and this fascination led me to keep exploring new ways of moving my fingers over keyboard. 

In the journey, I explored Dvorak keyboard layout, Colemak keyboard layout, and Qarg[^2] keyboard layout--albeit on Android phone not on physical keyboard--~~and not that but I also learnt to use mouse with left hand~~ but anyways... along the way I discovered the use of Sticky keys in Windows! 
Yes! those pesky pop-ups that appear when you tap `Shift` key five times in succession. The way you use them is like a auto-turning-off `Caps Lock`, or like the Android keyboard's shift press, where you press `Shift` and then you can lift your finger-off the key and press another key. If the key is an alphabet key then the letter will be capitalized and proceeding keystrokes would be registered normally; if the key is any other key it would act like you hit hotkey combination: `Shift + <key>`. 

Whether Sticky keys settings is On or Off, you can still use your `Shift` key as usual by pressing and holding it with other key in combination; but enabling Sticky keys unlocked a new power!
The mechanism of Sticky key is: if you press a modifier key once, it turns it on, if you press it twice it locks it in On mode, and when you press it third time it turns off the modifier.

Personally I find this useful when writing full PowerShell commands like: `Get-ChildItem`, `Get-ItemProperty`, `Expand-Archive`, `Measure-Command`, etc. With Sticky keys on those Pascal case names don't break my typing flow now.

Be careful though! Sticky keys can lead to annoyance when you are not careful or it can even permanently delete an item which you wanted to trash it to your Recycle bin[^3].
If you proceed to try Sticky keys setting then there will be many such annoyances in the beginning where you press `Shift` or even `Ctrl` key (Oh beware that Sticky keys settings are for all modifier keys: `Shift`, `Ctrl`, and `Alt`) and lift-off your finger thinking you are registering a simple keystroke and not a hotkey combination but you end-up with a mishit.

With Sticky keys I've attained a level of satisfaction with my fascination with typing. I wanted to run over my keyboard one finger at a time and I've found a way, now don't need to stretch my little fingers to hit a hotkey, I simply type the hotkey without pressing-and-holding. 

Wrapping up, this might not exactly be a "love letter" to CAPS Lock but it all started with it.

[^1]: I learned it from [Typing Trainer Online - 100% Free Online Typing Web Tutor!](https://www.typingtest.com/trainer/) though at the time it was https://my.typingtrainer.com/ (which now redirects to the former link).
[^2]: Reference : [Typewise - QWERTY Killer: How Typewise’s Novel Hexagon Keyboard App Is Replacing Legacy Smartphone Keyboards](https://www.typewise.app/post/qwerty-killer-typewise-hexagon-keyboard-app); and the app [Typewise Custom Keyboard - Apps on Google Play](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.icoaching.typewise)
[^3]: Since pressing `Shift+Del` would permanently delete an item on windows, sometimes without even confirmation.