Of course it does. Any draftsman worth his salt will tell you that many standards dictate all drawing text to be in caps - in fact, I cannot think of any proper design drawing that does not use full caps. Even drafting calligraphy used on hand drawn design drawings uses a very specific writing style that is all-caps.
Why would you permanently hold down shift for that? You have to type:
- general notes
- welding notes
- the bill of materials
- title block text, names, etc.
- dimension / tolerance info
- much more
all in capitals. There's simply no reason not to use caps lock.
On this point, it's also useful to note that the shift key allows the user to shift capslock off temporarily. This is the use case of all draftsmen I know, as the only time lowercase is used on drawings is for some dimensions (eg: the unit for millimetres is 'mm' in lower case).
So that functionality as part of capslock is necessary too.
In fact, I think this is a good example of needing to fully understand all use cases of a particular feature before making judgements on its usefulness. An integral part of working on a system is fully understanding the needs of all of the users, needs that may not have been intended during the primary design of the system.
I know I've fallen in to this trap before, where I've proposed a design change to a system and had a prototype manufactured only to have the workshop floor staff immediately explain why it's useless, because it cannot reproduce some unintended but now-important function of the original design.
Conversely, it's also good to look at unintended uses of previous designs. I've used equipment for functions it was never designed to do, but nevertheless proved to be a simple and effective solution.
the shift key allows the user to shift capslock off temporarily. This is the use case of all draftsmen I know, as the only time lowercase is used on drawings is for some dimensions (eg: the unit for millimetres is 'mm' in lower case). So that functionality as part of capslock is necessary too.
Finally, a concrete use case for this behavior. Thank you!
P.S. I wish we had more of these, and/or in a more discoverable form. It all works a lot better for me -- including remembering things -- when I know the reason(s).
Things often go down better, with a bit of context.
Comments
Of course it does. Any draftsman worth his salt will tell you that many standards dictate all drawing text to be in caps - in fact, I cannot think of any proper design drawing that does not use full caps. Even drafting calligraphy used on hand drawn design drawings uses a very specific writing style that is all-caps.
Why would you permanently hold down shift for that? You have to type:
- general notes
- welding notes
- the bill of materials
- title block text, names, etc.
- dimension / tolerance info
- much more
all in capitals. There's simply no reason not to use caps lock.
On this point, it's also useful to note that the shift key allows the user to shift capslock off temporarily. This is the use case of all draftsmen I know, as the only time lowercase is used on drawings is for some dimensions (eg: the unit for millimetres is 'mm' in lower case). So that functionality as part of capslock is necessary too.
In fact, I think this is a good example of needing to fully understand all use cases of a particular feature before making judgements on its usefulness. An integral part of working on a system is fully understanding the needs of all of the users, needs that may not have been intended during the primary design of the system.
I know I've fallen in to this trap before, where I've proposed a design change to a system and had a prototype manufactured only to have the workshop floor staff immediately explain why it's useless, because it cannot reproduce some unintended but now-important function of the original design.
Conversely, it's also good to look at unintended uses of previous designs. I've used equipment for functions it was never designed to do, but nevertheless proved to be a simple and effective solution.
the shift key allows the user to shift capslock off temporarily. This is the use case of all draftsmen I know, as the only time lowercase is used on drawings is for some dimensions (eg: the unit for millimetres is 'mm' in lower case). So that functionality as part of capslock is necessary too.
Finally, a concrete use case for this behavior. Thank you!
P.S. I wish we had more of these, and/or in a more discoverable form. It all works a lot better for me -- including remembering things -- when I know the reason(s).
Things often go down better, with a bit of context.
> it's also useful to note that the shift key allows the user to shift capslock off temporarily
MacBook Pro doesn't do this - I found that frustrating. There's probably a setting buried somewhere that I haven't found yet.
Why not make the text input smarter so that it automagically makes things all caps and units lower case?