uControl (What's this guy running on?)

fryke

fryke

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There's a utility called uControl. On the developer's site http://www.gnufoo.org/macosx/ucontrol.html you can download this ... piece of software. From the page: "Tired of hitting all the wrong modifier keys on your laptop to get that simple control sequence? Are you forced to drag a keyboard around with you that has the control key in the right place? The place that Apple mistakenly put the caps lock key. Take control back!"

What the f...ish does this guy actually *mean*? Can someone with an american keyboard tell me if it's *true* that ctrl-key and caps lock key have been remapped by Apple?!

If *not*, what does this guy talk about? Does he do it for the love of the game of appearing on versiontracker.com?

Maybe I should write an AppleScript that pops up a window with randomized jokes (out of a list of 1 or 2) and release it as the 'incredibly stupid joke teller' or iSjt 1.0b1. Tsk, tsk.
 
Apparently, the utility f*ed up all the computers the software was running on (1?) when updating to Mac OS 10.1.5... I'm scared. How many people are out there doing silly applications that might make our computers unbootable? I'm getting paranoid, I believe...
 
I doubt it makes your machine unbootable... you might just need to kill his application when it starts up and remove it from the login items...

This utility is run AFTER the machine boots and AFTER you login... so the machine is pretty much up and running in entirety before this guy's commands even hit the processor.

He must be doing some pretty shoddy programming if this one insignificant little application is brining down OS X in all its preemptive glory...
 
About the caps-lock/control thingy; what he is talking about is that on modern PC keyboards, the caps-lock key (which is totaly useless to most people) is where the ctrl key should be, right above the shift key.

If you look at an old Apple ][ or a UNIX style keyboard, they have the ctrl key above the left shift key, and the caps-lock key as a small key in the bottom corner of the keyboard (usualy). These layouts are much quicker if you need to type control sequences quite often, as programers have need to do, however, after all these years of using a normal PC style keyboard, I am quite used to the location of the ctrl key, and it acutally takes me some time to get used to its location on a UNIX keyboard when I need to use one.

I would prefer that keyboard makers would revert to the old style, as it made it a lot harder to hit the caps-lock key by accident, but I seriously doubt that any of them will revert to the old style with out a major fight.
 
Ah, okay. Coming from Atari ST, Amiga, Wintel-PCs and Macintosh, I of course have never seen that. Never seen them swapped. Well, now that I think of it, I HAVE seen it on a couple of SUN workstations and I even remember having trouble typing... But that's too far away (and too short a time) to remember.

So, you see, I hope they ain't going to change that ever, since 99.9% of my computer time's been spent with the caps lock WHERE IT BELONGS, right above the shift key, just like on the keyboard of a good old typewriter.

Yes, I know, I'm a writer, not a coder. :)
 
Still even as a writer, how often do you use the damn-able caps-lock key?

Edit: not that this is an argument for them to be switched, just that they shouldn't have been switched in the first place
 
Originally posted by LordOphidian
Still even as a writer, how often do you use the damn-able caps-lock key?
Click to expand...

Adding on to this argument: and how many times does one curse after hitting the caps lock key by accident? :)
 
Plus, you don't need uControl for remapping caps lock and control. You can add two lines to a file within the keyboard kext and that will do it. I posted that a while back.
 
uControl also remaps the enter key positioned right next to the spacebar to a command key, due to many user requests.
Click to expand...
Um, what? :confused: Enter key right next to the spacebar??

Currently, the only way to acquire different remaps is by recompiling. :(
Click to expand...
I think someone is misinformed. Either hazmat or uControl guy. And my money is currently on uControl guy being the misinformed one...

But later on down the page there are instructions on how to do this without uControl...

:confused: :confused:
 
I find that I use the caps lock key while programming more often than writing. In programming I use it to denote constants where as in writing... never. But then I only really write the constant variable name once and then copy paste which is neither control nor caps lock so this is one program I'll let other people use and enjoy.
 
Well, I think there *are* reasons to use this and there *are* historical facts that show that this *was* reversed. However, the original Mac was used more as a thing for writing documents than to code software by keyboard or even coding for UN*X.

As for 'a writer doesn't need CAPS LOCK': Does nobody remember Death in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels? I strongly believe he never used the Shift key for Death's dialogues. My stance was that on typewriter keyboards, the Caps Lock was above the Shift Key. On mechanical typewriters, the Caps Lock was basically a Lock key which locked the Shift key. So, historically, Caps Lock was above the Shift key (I strongly believe there were typewriters *before* UN*X workstations.
 
I installed uControl for its alleged ability to make the trackpad function as a scroll wheel (with Function key down), but it doesn't consistently work and will not uninstall from my 12" Powerbook OSX 2.4, and I cannot drag these 3 items to Trash because they "belong to Root" -
Library>PreferencfePanes>uControl.prefPane(folder)
System>Library>Extensions>uControl.kext
Library>StartupItems>uControl
Could anyone help me out of this pickle? uControl's own uninstall software prompts that it cannot uninstall.
Thanks.
Brad in TX
 
Me too... :)

I had uControl installed a long time ago, and when it started causing kernel panics at startup I had to remove it. I'd like to see the key remapping thing too...

Thanks :)

Edit: Never mind... http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13618

Edit (again): FWIW, uControl is now (as of 18 March) compatible with 10.2.x. I have it installed on my TiBook and it's really sweet. The virtual scrollwheel is a nice touch too... Get it here: http://www.gnufoo.org/ucontrol/

 
Oh, and Brad, we're not ignoring you... really.. :)

To remove uControl manually, go to a terminal, and run the following 3 commands:


sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/uControl.kext
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/uControl
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/uControl.prefPane


Be extremely careful typing these, if you hit enter too early, you will destroy your system. Naturally, standard disclaimers (I'm not responsible, yadda-yadda) apply.

When prompted for a password, enter your password, not root's. After you've run these, reboot, and uControl should be nowhere to be found.
 
Terminal. To get a Unix shell. But, unless it won't let you, I would think that you could remove those three files from the Finder. Maybe you would need to quit System Prefs before you do it. Am I wrong, Kenny?
 
Unfortunately, Finder won't work. The owner/permissions are such that one needs to be root (sudo) to remove them.
 
I have to side with Fryke, I think. Placing the Control key above the Shift key may be something that Unix machines did, but the Mac has a much more direct lineage leading to the typewriter than it does to a Unix workstation. And as for what makes more sense, I think that keeping things the way they were laid out for "every man" on the common typewriter and now on the common computer makes a lot more sense than rearranging them for the .001% of computer users who are programmers that need this sort of thing often. Let them install the work arounds.

P.S. While hitting the Caps Lock key accidentally may cause me to type something in upper case and then need to go back and correct it, hitting the Control key at an inopportune moment could really screw something up.
 
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