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Re: The most useless key on my keyboard is:

by Subliminal Kid (Initiate)
on Nov 18, 2005 at 12:00 UTC ( [id://509740]=note: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??


in reply to The most useless key on my keyboard is:

PrtSc/Sys Req: I do very very rarely use this key, much more on *nix than Winboxen because it puts an image in a folder rather than that clipboard stuff.
Scroll Lock: I'm going to have to go with this. I just don't tail fast moving logs often enough to get excited about it.
Caps Lock (always leave it off): In fact IO quite often have to pull this key off (why it is so out sized on some keyboards I have no idea but my typing isn't all that aND THIS EFFECT normally follows at some point)
Pause/Break: I still use this, mainly when trying to get out of windowsNT batch files (written for places that I can't deploy activeperl or anything else for that mater)
The 'Windows' key (because I run Linux): My Windows key works in Linux! There is a fix for it <google> and I've got a small penguin sticker.
The 'Mac' key (same reason): I have no such key <shrug>
# (comments are for sissies): Use POD or something - what do you do when the semi-colon key breaks?
F12 (hard enough to remember what F1 does): Someone has already said you need this key to access a Dell BIOS; I don't have a Dell but everyone else on the sodding planet seems to.
Esc (I prefer to face my demons head on): I use vim, you can't have my Esc key :qw.
Backspace (I never make mistakes): How would I fix the mistakes I make with the cAPSLOCK key without this one?


BUT what is Alt Gr for?

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Re^2: The most useless key on my keyboard is:
by olecs (Scribe) on Nov 18, 2005 at 12:57 UTC
    If you use vim you should seriously consider mapping the Caps Lock key to Escape. Then they can have your (other) Esc key, since after two days with some discipline you will never touch it again - The only problem with this is all the CAPITAL letters you get when doing stuff using VIM on someone elses computer.

      This sounds a nice idea. I always thought escape was a bit too far to press.

      I won't use it for two reasons. Firstly I've used up Caps Lock for a much better purpose, see my reply to this poll. Secondly, I don't use vi*, so I use escape much less frequently during editing and those times it's always a modifier, so I can just use the Alt key (either of them, I don't make this riddiculous distinction between Green Alt and Alt Gr). Other then these, I agree with your idea.

      Finally let me note that a friend of mine uses vim and has remapped the two-character sequence ;x to escape in it, as it almost never appears in text and is easy to type. That has the advantage over your method that he doesn't have to install any special software to change the keyboard settings, as the mapping is done by vim itself. Also this way he doesn't have to find out how to do the remapping on every system separately (like X, Linux console, OS X, Windows etc). I had to experiment much to make the same sane keyboard settings work both on the Linux console and X.

      I've actually mapped CTRL to the Caps-Lock key, resulting in a Sun-like layout. But mapping the actual CTRL-key to ESC is an idea I haven't had before.. Thanks :)

      Regards,
      -octo

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