As an aside, I switched Caps Lock to ESC a few years ago and after the 6 weeks(?...

foldr · on July 12, 2018

The only issue with that for me is that Caps Lock as Control is also a useful mapping.

scaasic · on July 12, 2018

On my Mac I use Karabiner to map Caps + [key] to Ctrl, and a lone press to Esc. It's amazing.

prh8 · on July 12, 2018

I've done the same but Caps + key to Hyper (cmd+ctrl+option+shift), just to pair with custom shortcuts.

But I really love using it for escape. I'm on a 2014 model but not going to the corner for escape is great. Plus I'm about to get one of these new ones, and I feel prepared since I have zero usage of the top row (other than the special functions).

driverdan · on July 12, 2018

Wow, that's a great idea. I didn't realize it had support for that.

pvinis · on July 12, 2018

Yep. Every single thread about TouchBar complaints has this or a very similar comment and people. Spread the knowledge!

torstenvl · on July 12, 2018

That sounds like a perfect setup! Mind sharing the modification rule?

prh8 · on July 12, 2018

I map it to Hyper, but you can tweak this to just be control:

    {
        "description": "Change caps_lock to hyper/escape.",
        "from": {
            "key_code": "caps_lock",
            "modifiers": {
                "optional": [
                    "any"
                ]
            }
        },
        "to": [
            {
                "key_code": "left_shift",
                "modifiers": [
                    "left_command",
                    "left_control",
                    "left_option"
                ]
            }
        ],
        "to_if_alone": [
            {
                "key_code": "escape"
            }
        ],
        "type": "basic"
    }

foldr · on July 12, 2018

Oh that's neat, thanks for the tip.

rz2k · on July 12, 2018

I do caps lock to control, and control to escape. I also set right_shift when pressed alone and not a modifier to forward_delete.

rz2k · on July 12, 2018

Complex key behaviors can be defined with Karabiner-Elements.[1]

There are tons of settings posted on Github, and I just modified someone else's to get:

    {"description":"Change right_shift alone to delete_forward",
    "manipulators":[{
    "from":{"key_code":"right_shift","modifiers":{"optional":["any"]}},
    "to":[{"key_code":"right_shift"}],
    "to_if_alone":[{"key_code":"delete_forward"}],
    "type":"basic"}]}

[1] https://github.com/tekezo/Karabiner-Elements

freehunter · on July 12, 2018

I feel like I'm the only one who actually uses caps lock for its intended purpose, and often...

smelterdemon · on July 12, 2018

Are you writing a lot of FORTRAN 77 or something?

jcelerier · on July 12, 2018

as a french, on linux (and mac too), caps lock is the correct way to get accentued capitals.