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0 pointspdimitar9y ago0 comments

As a guy who uses the top bar of keys a lot, I wouldn't buy the new MBPs even for $500.

IMO that was a foolhardy decision; Macs are (were?) very popular amongst designers and programmers, why limit the accessibility of the keyboard? Do you realize how many strokes on the Esc key a VIM-using dev does per day?

It's as if Apple doesn't care about the professional audience anymore.

They should've offered a "touch bar" and "normal bar" variants for their laptops IMO.

0 comments

jimbokun9y ago

How much of Apple's sales do you think go to vim users?

And they do have a normal bar variant of the 13", although that might go away when prices come down.

Lastly, your argument sounds similar to me to the people who vowed they would never give up their physical phone keyboards. I don't think they made much impact on Apple's iPhone sales.

Seems your top priority is preserving what you are comfortable with. My gut feeling is potential for better interfaces no one has even thought of yet for Touch Bar is immense.

pdimitarOP9y ago

As a matter of fact, I do miss physical keyboards on phones but frankly they don't make sense because they're nowhere near the level of comfort of my mechanical keyboard. My answer to this has been to stop spending on smartphones. I'll be buying the next iPad Pro and will settle for a midrange Android and an iPhone 7 / 7s / 8 and will just call it quits for 3-4 years.

I am not "vowing" anything. There are changes that do make sense and others who don't -- and that's subjective, of course. For me the real physical feedback when typing is irreplaceable.

And don't give me that talk that I am a grumpy old fart. Until we have computers able to react on voice like the Star Trek computers do, full physical keyboards are not going anywhere. It's about convenience and speed of the interaction, not about trends.

gerrard009y ago

Most Vim users I talk to have remapped CapsLock or another set of keys to escape, since the escape key is so far away. I personally use `jk` since I rarely write anything with Dutch names.

pdimitarOP9y ago

(1) I can remap Esc of course, but I shouldn't have to. (2) I also use F1-F12 often. Them being gone and replaced by touch interface is awful for an experienced typist.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointspdimitar9y ago0 comments

As a guy who uses the top bar of keys a lot, I wouldn't buy the new MBPs even for $500.

It's as if Apple doesn't care about the professional audience anymore.

They should've offered a "touch bar" and "normal bar" variants for their laptops IMO.

0 comments

jimbokun9y ago

How much of Apple's sales do you think go to vim users?

And they do have a normal bar variant of the 13", although that might go away when prices come down.

Lastly, your argument sounds similar to me to the people who vowed they would never give up their physical phone keyboards. I don't think they made much impact on Apple's iPhone sales.

Seems your top priority is preserving what you are comfortable with. My gut feeling is potential for better interfaces no one has even thought of yet for Touch Bar is immense.

pdimitarOP9y ago

I am not "vowing" anything. There are changes that do make sense and others who don't -- and that's subjective, of course. For me the real physical feedback when typing is irreplaceable.

gerrard009y ago

Most Vim users I talk to have remapped CapsLock or another set of keys to escape, since the escape key is so far away. I personally use `jk` since I rarely write anything with Dutch names.

pdimitarOP9y ago

(1) I can remap Esc of course, but I shouldn't have to. (2) I also use F1-F12 often. Them being gone and replaced by touch interface is awful for an experienced typist.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse