Nobody learns if nothing is brok3n

DUDE... you'd actually give up an entire computer system, and as we all know, a way of life, JUST because of CAPS?! Wow. Peter hasn't given up all computers just because they don't ship with dvorak keyboards. Personally I find this right up there with the unhealthy and completely unnatural fear of purple and yellow fruits and veggies. ;) I can honestly say that you are the ONLY person I've ever heard of who does this. Here's the thing... I was taught to hit shift with the other hand, thus eliminating the need to "contort your hand" to hit capital letters. Obviously I haven't tried it, but the idea of using caps instead of shift seems very silly and quite against it's intended purpose (pull out an old typewriter and attempt the same thing, I dare you). /troll (I can't make that a proper end tag or it will vanish) :)

1) ya, I would Eric. I know what I like, and using shift isn't that. If apple enforces this, I might just switch to linux or something, when my current gear isn't acceptable. My current gear is however very acceptable. :)

2) I tried using shift on both sides, both are not acceptable.

I guess you could use software to swap Caps Lock with Ctrl (or something else) and teach yourself that Caps Lock has moved. Not ideal, I know.

Do you "hunt & peck" or can you type with 10 fingers?

I just tried your usage of capslock and think it would drive me nuts. You have to hit capslock. Hit the key. Hit capslock again. Using shift is only two steps: Hit the key, while the pinkie of your other hand holds shift down.

If you aren't an Emacs user, you won't ever be able to understand how tragic this is. I've been mapping whatever key is left of 'A' to control ever since they moved control to the wrong place -- and that's going on some 20 years now. When I'm coding, I open up an iTerm, make it full-screen, and my hands never leave the keyboard.

The way the shift key is "supposed" to be used is on the opposite hand: When the letter to be capitalized is on the left side, you use the right shift key, and when it's on the right side, you use the left shift key.

So in theory there's no contorting. Not that people don't contort, just like you say, all the time. And not that there's anything wrong with your system either. I'm pretty bad myself at using the "proper" shift key.

FWIW

A keyboard that uses the idiotic layout putting Caps Lock left of A is completely unusable if you can't map Caps Lock to Control. That's not even an exaggeration. If they do this to Apple laptops, I absolutely will not buy one, because it will not be usable.

I don't think this delay is going to faze any of you. Watch the video when you get a chance; it's literally like a tenth of a second.

I don't think the emacs folks are going to have any problem, because if you hold the button down long enough to hit another key, no matter how fast you are, it's going to be enough time for it to register.

I don't even think it will affect the OP's use of Caps Lock instead of Shift. The threshold isn't even between "quick tap" and "hold the button down momentarily"; it really is between "accidental brush" and "deliberate tap of any length".

Just check out the video and see how minute the difference is between his fast taps and slow taps. I think you'll be reassured.

I can tell you right now, it will. I am typing this on the new apple keyboard right now, and have had my quicksilver mapping and several vim key commands fail today due to caps-as-control not working fast enough. If you think it wont affect your usage of that key, try it, you'll change your mind. I'm really hoping a fix comes out for this, because otherwise the key feel is rather nice and of course it looks nice, but if this doesn't change fast... this keyboard is gone.

@Jeremy: that's completely wrong -- I'm using it for emacs and it's the worst thing that's ever happened to my typing. I leave stray characters all over the buffer when the Control key doesn't engage. Extremely frustrating.