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Actually a lot of people have decided they don't need it. They remap caps lock to something like spotlight search. The alternative to the caps lock key is the shift key. And this is a really bad metaphor for functional programming. Sorry GP.

I suppose the important point here is it's not possible for something going wrong with your monitor or speakers to suddenly remap your keyboard without warning.



I'm not saying it's a great analogy, but among it's strengths is handiness.

Among it's other strengths is that functional programs can be built bottom up from lots of little pieces and when we get unexpected results, we can track them down. If suddenly my keyboard's "b" key stops working, the problem is almost certainly with the switch beneath it and not because of something the "h" key is doing.

Another strength of the analogy is that the most disorienting behaviors of a keyboard are tied to state: the worst one for me is numlock off where the behavior shifts to dependence on the state of the display.


You may enjoy Jef Raskin's "The Humane Interface" assuming you haven't already read it. It expounds at length about this.


Unfortunately, in most keyboard, the `h' key might affect the `b' key. See n-key rollover.




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