[Oberon] CapsLock

[Chris Burrows]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Oberon [mailto:oberon-bounces at lists.inf.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of
> Steven Hirsch
> Sent: Sunday, 17 January 2016 6:51 AM
> To: ETH Oberon and related systems
> Subject: Re: [Oberon] Re (2): Keyboard substituting for mouse.
> 
> On Sat, 16 Jan 2016, peter at easthope.ca wrote:
> 
> > A disabled <Caps Lock> in a public release for general use probably
> > will confuse more than help.
> 
> That's odd.  The system that shipped with my OberonStation does not
> have a functional caps-lock.
> 
> 

I would go further than the other Chris (Chris Glur) and would rename it the
"DAMNED <cAPSlOCK>". I don't know why he doesn't like it but the problem I
have always had with it is that I set it on and then forget and start using
the shift key as well so I end up with something like this:   

  PROCEDURE rEADiNT

Yes - I know, it's my fault as I have never learnt how to touchtype properly
so I only look at the screen after typing every few words.

My preferred behaviour would be that the Shift key is ignored whenever
CapsLock is on instead of acting as 'toggle case' but I guess that would
confuse everybody else. Consequently I never use the <CapsLock> key. 

Believe it or not it was this irritation that led to the creation of first
CPIde and then Astrobe. I designed the editor so that you could type
everything in lowercase (using the shift key for isolated capital letters).
The editor recognises Oberon reserved words and keywords and automatically
capitalises them. For example, if I type:

  procedure ReadInt(r: Rider; i: integer);
  begin

The Astrobe editor's auto-capitalisation feature converts this on the fly
to:

  PROCEDURE ReadInt(r: Rider; i: INTEGER);
  BEGIN 

Of course, the feature can be switched off for those who are happy with
CapsLock. For those who need to have CapsLock on RISC5 Oberon I have
proposed a modification to Input.Mod on the OberonStation forum:

 http://oberonstation.x10.mx/smf/index.php?topic=22.0

Regards,
Chris (Burrows)
CFB Software
http://www.astrobe.com