Left shift, Right shift, Or caps?

[Trenton.]

Were going into a descussion on this in another thread. What your opinion?

[Randomizer]

Primarily left shift, but it depends upon what I'm typing.. For a while I was using a keyboard where the left shift wasn't working and I used Caps Lock instead.

[Harehunter]

Mostly left shift only, touch type the caps lock, and usually shun the right shift. What with the cursor keys, the numeric keypad and the mouse, let the left hand do its share.

[Necris Omega]

I eviscerated my Capslock key, boiled it in oil, and fed it to a roving duck.

[Nioca]

Right Shift. It just feels awkward to hit the left shift, and I grew up primarily using the right shift key, so... yeah.

 

'Course, my main method of typing is a sort of self-taught hybrid of touch-typing and hunt-and-peck, so it may just be because of how I type.

[Trenton.]

Our first right shifter! Excellent, I predict this is gonna turn out to be a very good poll indeed

[Callie]

Reaching over to the left shift key is awkward so I only use the right shift key.

[Trenton.]

Second....As one said before, is it posibble the shift depends on the hand? Like right hands use left and lefts use right?

[Niemand]

I use the left shift key most of the time, but for several symbols on the right side of the keyboard (_+{}:"|?<>) (where where the parentheses of the previous parenthetical expression are themselves part its content) I use the right shift key. Since I spend a large fraction of my time at work writing C or C++ code I end up using several of those symbols a lot.

[Dintiradan]

I keep my fingers to the home row, and left shift is closer to 'a' than right shift is to ';'. For what it's worth, I hit the space bar with my right thumb only.

[Mistb0rn]

Left shift.

But I don't type right at all; though I did try to learn the right way at one point, I quickly got tired of the exercises and resigned myself to ~40 words per minute my hideous monstrosity of a method allows.

 

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega

I eviscerated my Capslock key, boiled it in oil, and fed it to a roving duck.

I should try that.

I can't tell you the number of times I've inadvertently hit Caps lock when aiming for Tab. Since I do usually look at the keyboard while typing, I can go quite a ways without noticing.

[Trenton.]

Nine to One to One! Its anyones game now! (that was sarcasm...You know what? Everytime I use sarcasm I am going to use italics >.>)

 

Besides, Left shift is right below CAPS LOCK, TAB, and ~, and above Ctrl, so its more important

[Student of Trinity]

Having to point out sarcasm is a good indication that it's working well.

[Goldengirl]

Well, I'll be darned. There is a RIGHT shift key? Huh.

 

You learn something new everyday, I suppose.

[Tyranicus]

I use the left shift almost exclusively. I never use the caps lock key. in fact, I disable it in Systems Preferences on all my computers, so I don't hit it accidentally.

[nikki.]

Now, I'm being ridiculously conscious whilst typing to see what I'm doing, because I don't remember, and I'm pretty certain it's altering the results.

 

Anyway, left-shift, and I only hit the space bar with my right index finger unless I'm thinking about it, or typing a lot on the right side of the keyboard.

[Micawber]

I use left shift, and left ctrl. The others might just as well not be there.

 

I usually only hit caps lock by accident, it's very rare indeed to find a time when it's actually useful. The databases I use have field names in camelCase, and I use lower case for sql statements, and for xml and html tags, so caps lock doesn't even get a look in really.

[Alorael at Large]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

I keep my fingers to the home row, and left shift is closer to 'a' than right shift is to ';'. For what it's worth, I hit the space bar with my right thumb only.

This.

—Alorael, who does use caps lock on occasion. Just not on many occasions.

[Dantius]

tHE cAPS lOCK KEY IS THE WORST LOCATED KEY ON HE ENTIRE qwerty KEYBOARD. wHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO PUT IT RIGHT NEXT TO THE "sHIFT" KEY SO IT GETS ACCIDENTALLY PRESSED WHEN TRYING TO CAPITALIZE THE FIRST LETTER OF A SENTENCE?

[Harehunter]

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Left shift.
But I don't type right at all; though I did try to learn the right way at one point, I quickly got tired of the exercises and resigned myself to ~40 words per minute my hideous monstrosity of a method allows.

I took typing in high school, at my mother's urging, and I got up to 47 wpm on a manual typewriter. That sucker required a hefty hand to move the keys. When I started working on terminals and PCs, I got up to about 80+ wpm in spurts. Flying Fingers Finnigan strikes again. When the Parkinson's hit me, I dropped to about 10 wpm because I had to use my right hand exclusively. With the new meds working pretty good, I'm back up to about 50-60wpm.

[A less presumptuous name.]

Originally Posted By: Dintiradan

I keep my fingers to the home row, and left shift is closer to 'a' than right shift is to ';'. For what it's worth, I hit the space bar with my right thumb only.

This, only I sometimes use right shift for ? etc.

I don't use caps lock much unless I'm doing lists of names in caps for some reason. Or chatting with people. And on a mac, CHAT LOCK OVERRIDES SHIFT, SO NO AWKWARD INVERSION.

[Trenton.]

In some chats I use caps lock for screaming as everyone else in a chat would

[Dikiyoba]

Dikiyoba uses the left shift key when typing, although the right shift can be a useful key in a few games.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

tHE cAPS lOCK KEY IS THE WORST LOCATED KEY ON HE ENTIRE qwerty KEYBOARD. wHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO PUT IT RIGHT NEXT TO THE "sHIFT" KEY SO IT GETS ACCIDENTALLY PRESSED WHEN TRYING TO CAPITALIZE THE FIRST LETTER OF A SENTENCE?

That is exactly why I disable it on all my computers.

[keira]

The only time I ever use the right-shift is when gaming. I used to scorn the WASD setup and just use the arrow keys, but I'm starting to phase in WASD controls, since there's more buttons nearby.

[Potato]

...what?

 

I was under the impression that everyone used a right shift. Left shift just feels weird to me. Whenever I have to hit anything to the right of shift+5 (%), I just stretch my index finger over. 1-4 (!@#$) are hit by my left hand. On the topic of space bars, I always use my left thumb to do the space bar. This is how I've typed, and I think that I'm pretty fast at it.

[Tyranicus]

I think what we can take home from this topic is that very few people type the same way as others, but everyone assumes everyone types the way they do.

[Harehunter]

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus

I think what we can take home from this topic is that very few people type the same way as others, but everyone assumes everyone types the way they do.

That is because in some ways we are all different types of people.

vive le diversity!

[Karoka]

It really depends on what letter I'm capitalizing. Capitalizing 'w' with the right key just feels weird for me.

[Harehunter]

Originally Posted By: Karoka

It really depends on what letter I'm capitalizing. Capitalizing 'w' with the right key just feels weird for me.

Left pinky on the shift, left ring finger for the W. Even the Q is hit with the left ring finger. About the only reason I use the right shift key is to get those pesky symbols on the 1 - 6 keys and that peculiar little key to the left of 1.

But I never said I wasn't a bit odd. I'm certainly not even.

[Lilith]

I use the left shift for almost everything and I can top 110 WPM on a good day, so this breach of proper typing procedure obviously hasn't hurt me too much.

[Alorael at Large]

I've just tested my own typing speed. I'm averaging around 105 WPM while copying text. I conclude that the pinky shift is optimal.

 

—Alorael, who also concludes that he doesn't need to learn Dvorak. His typing speed is where he needs it to be to give him just enough time to filter his thoughts before clicking "Post" or "Send" or whatever else will serve up his screeds to his readers.

[Mod.]

Weird, I always thought everyone used right shift like me...

[Metatron]

I'm a left-hander who uses a laptop with no USB mouse. I prefer to keep my right hand in the power zone: backspace, enter, right shift, end, pg dn, pg up, home. Semicolons, parenthesis, and brackets also reside here. They are very important to me.

 

Left hand moves around more, although obviously the right hand contributes to some degree when typing. But left hand is used for ctrl-l, ctrl-t, ctrl-v, ctrl-c, ctrl-x, ctrl-w, and of course ctrl-z.

 

I'm much faster than most people when, for example, using Firefox web browser or editing text.

 

I'm working on incorporating alt-f4 and the keyboard's right-click into my keyboard use.

 

Pressing caps lock initiates the self-destruct sequence.

[The Ratt]

I'm a little disappointed that there's not option that includes both shift keys, but not the Caps Lock. After all, that is the way you're taught to do it in typing class.

[Goldengirl]

Originally Posted By: The (Armored) Ratt

I'm a little disappointed that there's not option that includes both shift keys, but not the Caps Lock. After all, that is the way you're taught to do it in typing class.

Based on the replies that we're seeing here now, it doesn't seem like that is a prevalent practice. In fact, I don't think that I've ever seen anyone exercise proper typing procedure.

[Dantius]

While we're discussing this, why am I the only one who thinks the numpad should be to the left of the keyboard, not the right? The vast majority of people are right handed, so putting the numpad on the right makes it awkward to use. There's very little call outside gaming to use the keyboard and mouse simultaneously, but I use the numpad and the mouse all the time. It just seems like the designer chose... poorly.

[keira]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

While we're discussing this, why am I the only one who thinks the numpad should be to the left of the keyboard, not the right? The vast majority of people are right handed, so putting the numpad on the right makes it awkward to use. There's very little call outside gaming to use the keyboard and mouse simultaneously, but I use the numpad and the mouse all the time. It just seems like the designer chose... poorly.

Right-handed people are not important. It is clear that left-handed people are the genetic superiors in this case (and all others).

[Randomizer]

Monkeys are even more superior because they can use their tails to manipulate the mouse without removing their hands from the keyboard. Just like Zimbu in Dilbert.

We're an evolutionary dead end.

 

[Necris Omega]

Eh, that's what bioengineering is for.

 

Originally Posted By: Mistb0rn

Originally Posted By: Necris Omega

I eviscerated my Capslock key, boiled it in oil, and fed it to a roving duck.

I should try that.

 

Just to warn you, while the duck isn't hurt by swallowing the Capslock key, it does immediately start to get really, really loud...

[Alorael at Large]

If you have problems with numeric keypad and mouse, WASD usually suffices. Now that so many people are using laptops without keypads that's probably becoming more standard than numbers.

 

—Alorael, who still can't play Angband without a keyboard. He knows there's a control setup for it, but he can't get used to it.

[Harehunter]

Originally Posted By: left shift implies what velocity

If you have problems with numeric keypad and mouse, WASD usually suffices. Now that so many people are using laptops without keypads that's probably becoming more standard than numbers.

—Alorael, who still can't play Angband without a keyboard. He knows there's a control setup for it, but he can't get used to it.

WASD or JIKL? I can see that WASD would be great for lefties, bt JIKL makes more sense for righties.
Actually, since unix vi (an editor) uses hjkl (Left,Down,Up, Right), it might make more sense to use it.

[Rowen]

Almost never do I use the number pad for anything but imputing numbers on spread sheets and when I do I can arrow or tab my way around without the need of a mouse.

 

When gaming, the right hand is left on the mouse all the time except when typing to other players. The number pad is still ignored also as I remap all the hot keys for playing on this.

[Tyranicus]

Originally Posted By: Harehunter

WASD or JIKL? I can see that WASD would be great for lefties, bt JIKL makes more sense for righties.
Actually, since unix vi (an editor) uses hjkl (Left,Down,Up, Right), it might make more sense to use it.

Most games that use WASD for movement also use the mouse, so your right hand is on the mouse.

[Alorael at Large]

For lefties, the mouse and numeric keypad is ideal, except for lefties who have learned to use computers right-handed. I know quite a few.

 

—Alorael, who can see a game doing interesting things by forcing you to use different control schemes. Mostly gimmicky flash games, though, or most players would angrily remap all the keys and complain.

[Micawber]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

While we're discussing this, why am I the only one who thinks the numpad should be to the left of the keyboard, not the right?

Most use of the number pad I have seen is people using it to enter long sequences of numbers into the computer, for which a majority would prefer to use their right hand. Typically you have a hard copy print out perched on top of the letters part of the keyboard, and use the right hand to type the numbers while reading them off the paper. Personal computers with number pads have been around for at least 20 years, and most business/government systems have historically been very poor at transfering data from one system to another or from customer/supplier to their own system, relying on a lot of manual data entry. This is changing now, thanks to the internet, but the keyboard design was actually more appropriate for that era.

Edit: A real life example was a client I worked at, where there was no connection between the call center that took customer details, and the back end data processing center. The call center literally had to print out the details, fax them to the processing center, where some poor souls had to type them in again. This is a 100% verifiable example in the public domain (if you look hard enough)

[Aran]

Left small finger goes on the left shift key, which allows me to touch-type with ten fingers according to my own gradually evolved system which is way more comfortable than the more common one.

 

Even when I'm typing a key combination that requires four fingers in ergonomically unsafe positions (I'm an emacs user), I've rarely needed the right one. Though sometimes I'm using the mouse at the same time and have to type Shift+${Far-right-key} left-handed, which is easier with the right shift key.