Lets talk about the Caps Lock!

Another day, another key topic.

I read recently that the BBC Micro had a Shift Lock and a Caps Lock (and this does stir a vague memory but I haven’t seen a BBC Micro since leaving secondary school…).

Is it possible to have a Shift Lock key on modern RISC OS? Since I’m working on a programmable keyboard design, I could probably send any character code (need to check that…but for now lets assume I can send anything).

I’m not near a RISC OS computer right now but is the function of the Caps Lock key on RISC OS actually a “Capital Shift Lock” in that it only shifts and locks the letters and not th symbols…?

Yes, like Macs and PCs, Caps Lock means Caps Lock – only letter keys affected. Not Shift Lock, like on old manual typewriters.

BBC Micros did indeed have both – http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F7DowFkK8dk/VDJdvTh-siI/AAAAAAAADJg/bCsbiMTtHr8/s1600/BBC%2Bmicro%2Bkeys%2Bcaps%2Breplaced.jpg (I’m not sure every model did – anyone know?)

I’m not near a RISC OS computer right now but is the function of the Caps Lock key on RISC OS actually a “Capital Shift Lock” in that it only shifts and locks the letters and not th symbols…?

It varies a bit, IIRC, depending on whether you press Caps Lock with or without Shift. There was definitely a “caps all the time” and “inverted Shift” mode available back in the RISC OS 2/3 days.

Surely the “inverted shift mode” is simply that hitting shift while caps lock is on gives you an unshifted letter LIKe THAT – caps lock on, but with shift as well for that e. That works on most, if not all, electronic keyboards.

The Amstrad PCW 8256 had either shift lock or caps lock — I forget which — but unlike most computers the shift lock turned off if you pressed the shift key again. This made it very much like a manual typewriter. The good thing with a manual typewriter was that you could feel whether shift lock was on or not. Computers only get away with the daft user interface that is the standard implementation of caps lock because you can easily go back and correct it all when you realise you’ve had it turned on by mistake.