created August 22, 2004 · complexity basic · author Kris M · version 5.7
I don't like mapping Caps_Lock to Escape as is done in VimTip166. I don't want an easier way to hit Escape, I want to prevent unexpected things from happening when I accidentally hit Caps_Lock when I was trying to hit Shift. With Caps_Lock mapped to escape i still got unexpected results. So here is how your bind Caps lock to the Shift key under Xwindows:
Just put this in a file in your home directory called .Xmodmap
remove lock = Caps_Lock keycode 66 = Shift_R remove shift = Shift_R add shift = Shift_R
Comments
Shift and Shift at the same place isn't very useful. One thing that is though is to remap Caps-Lock to Ctrl. Its safe to hit accidentally and it provides a very good place to do Ctrl-W or Ctrl-X Ctrl-L etc.
That's basically how the Happy Hacking keyboard is implemented too, and it's a joy on a normal keyboard.