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Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

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Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#31

Post by weinzierl »

gamedna wrote: post #5
weinzierl wrote: post #2

I'm in the market for the new MacBok Pro and the OLED row makes me excited, but as a Vim user the lack of an physical escape key would be problem for me. I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl and I'm glad that MacOS provides this option out of the box, but Caps Lock as Esc is not an option for me. I hope there will be an out of the box way to map Escape to something sensible. I'd trade ~ for Esc anytime, as long as ~ and `…

this is apple, be on the lookout for the new iVimClutch. (for those who dont know what a vim clutch is: https://github.com/alevchuk/vim-clutch )

I thought of this before. Funny that it is a real thing.

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#32

Post by weinzierl »

blcArmadillo wrote: post #9
weinzierl wrote: post #2

I'm in the market for the new MacBok Pro and the OLED row makes me excited, but as a Vim user the lack of an physical escape key would be problem for me. I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl and I'm glad that MacOS provides this option out of the box, but Caps Lock as Esc is not an option for me. I hope there will be an out of the box way to map Escape to something sensible. I'd trade ~ for Esc anytime, as long as ~ and `…

Have you ever considered mapping 'jk' or 'kj' to Esc? This seems to be a somewhat common mapping from what I've seen looking at others' vimrc.

I used 'jj' for a while but the short delay to display j threw me off. I have Ctrl on Caps Lock so pressing Ctrl-[ is decent but still: I never got used to it.

I met Bram at Vimfest in Berlin recently and asked him if he remaps Esc. He said something along the lines of: "No, I aim for the uppI used 'jj' for a while but the short delay to display j threw me off. I have Ctrl on Caps Lock so pressing Ctrl-[ is decent but still: I never got used to it.

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#33

Post by weinzierl »

serge2k wrote: post #4
weinzierl wrote: post #2

I'm in the market for the new MacBok Pro and the OLED row makes me excited, but as a Vim user the lack of an physical escape key would be problem for me. I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl and I'm glad that MacOS provides this option out of the box, but Caps Lock as Esc is not an option for me. I hope there will be an out of the box way to map Escape to something sensible. I'd trade ~ for Esc anytime, as long as ~ and `…

> OLED row makes me excited Can't imagine why. It sounds incredibly dumb. Probably have to live with it since no one else seems to be able to make a really high quality laptop. sigh.

>Rumors also suggest the OLED touch panel may be contextual, with buttons that change based on each app that's in use. [1]

Having the most common functions available is something that sounds great in theory. The idea is not even new [2]. We will see if it works in practice.

Personally I think I would like the OLED strip to show my Dock permanently, so that I could switch apps without reaching to the touch pad.

[1] http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macbook-pro/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard

The OLED strip will probably used

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#34

Post by weinzierl »

serge2k wrote: post #4
weinzierl wrote: post #2

I'm in the market for the new MacBok Pro and the OLED row makes me excited, but as a Vim user the lack of an physical escape key would be problem for me. I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl and I'm glad that MacOS provides this option out of the box, but Caps Lock as Esc is not an option for me. I hope there will be an out of the box way to map Escape to something sensible. I'd trade ~ for Esc anytime, as long as ~ and `…

> OLED row makes me excited Can't imagine why. It sounds incredibly dumb. Probably have to live with it since no one else seems to be able to make a really high quality laptop. sigh.

>Rumors also suggest the OLED touch panel may be contextual, with buttons that change based on each app that's in use. [1]

Having the most common functions available is something that sounds great in theory. The idea is not even new [2]. We will see if it works in practice.

Personally I think I would like the OLED strip to show my Dock permanently, so that I could switch apps without reaching to the touch pad.

[1] http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macbook-pro/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimus_Maximus_keyboard

The OLED strip will probably used

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#36

Post by wodenokoto »

busterarm wrote: post #6

I've been using an external keyboard (Realforce 87U at work. A 104 w/ Cherry Blues at home). Other than the coffee-shop crowd, how many of you would say you're exclusively a laptop-keyboard user? Not a dig, just wondering. If Apple offered an iPad Pro, running OSX with USB ports (or a thunderbolt port usb hub) for a physical keyboard, I would switch over in a heartbeat.

I am so used to my laptop keyboard, that even when I do plugin my real keyboard, I end up using the one on my laptop.

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#37

Post by wodenokoto »

eridius wrote: post #25
meidan wrote: post #20

I use VIM. I will not be upgrading to the newest apple products. I think I'll phase them out instead.

Maybe you should wait until the products are released before judging them. Also, a VIM user that actually uses the escape key? I don't know how you tolerate that. I bound jk to escape years ago, and in the rare case where I'm ssh'd into a machine that doesn't have my vim config I still find ^[ easier to type than escape (which is probably because I bound caps lock to control so ^[ is easy to type).

I don't use VIM a lot, mostly when committing stuff in git, so I'm quite naive about it.

How would you get out of insert mode by writing jk? Or, how would you write jk in insert mode without exiting?

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#38

Post by 1_2__3 »

snowwrestler wrote: post #24
1_2__3 wrote: post #14

It's really hard not to see this as just a continuous and perpetual dumbing-down by Apple of all its products, to the point of uselessness for essentially anyone who isn't an 80 year old grandmother who's never used a computer before and needs to use skype.

On the other hand, the touch bar might introduce opportunities for more sophisticated and flexible interfaces.

Will it, though? I feel like we're in the part of history right now where - when it comes to computers anyway - we're going with what's cool rather than what works. I'd say in general touchscreens have continued to be an utter failure as a general-purpose input device, and that's why we only see it on toy devices. Anything where what you type matters still uses some kind of mechanical feedback.

Maybe with haptic feedback that'll change, but for now any attempt to move mechanical keys to touch-screens are, for me, a net negative just because of the basic facts of reality.

Re: Ask HN: No mechanical escape key in new Macbook Pros?

#40

Post by devopsproject »

1_2__3 wrote: post #14

It's really hard not to see this as just a continuous and perpetual dumbing-down by Apple of all its products, to the point of uselessness for essentially anyone who isn't an 80 year old grandmother who's never used a computer before and needs to use skype.

I think you are way off base. The user in question would clearly be using facetime :)
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