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Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

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Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#51

Post by wwweston »

saagarjha wrote: post #22

> Things got even worse when Apple "reinvented" the Play/Pause button in High Sierra. Actually, this was introduced midway through macOS Sierra; https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer is available in macOS 10.12.1+. > Buttons rock. It's always faster to tap, not slide. If you press Fn, the slider will go away and the "normal" function buttons will appear. > I want to have instant access to Finder, anyw…

> If you press Fn, the slider will go away and the "normal" function buttons will appear.

So, something that used to be a simple that could be done from muscle memory is now either (a) a slider that requires change of focus or (b) a multi-key combination which is totally the same thing as the thing you miss, and in summary, everything is fine.

> I really think it would do you well to learn a bit more about why your computer was designed that way

Maybe this highlights Apple's ostensible vs true value pitch these days:

Ostensible: "You aren't going to have to think about it too much because it just works."

Actual: "learn a bit more about why your computer was designed that way and we're sure you'll find that any complaints and frustrations are actually just wrong"

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#52

Post by scarface74 »

Slightly off topic. But I always hated AppleScript. I first started trying to play with it in 1992 with System 7 and it always fell in the uncanny valley of being almost a natural language but not really. What’s strange is that I did like HyperTalk with Hypercard

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#53

Post by ProfessorLayton »

dawnerd wrote: post #25
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #11

The Touchbar has been mostly a dud for me, and I don't miss it when using my older MBP. I have customized by touch bar to include my favorite actions such as locking the screen, but it is otherwise static. My 2 biggest issues are: - It turns off after 1 min of inactivity, and find it infuriating that I have to wake it up by before using it. Effectively making everything 2 interactions away. - No haptic feedback. Even…

Primary reason it turns off is because its oled, and leaving it on would cause burn-in.

Whatever the reason is, it leads to a poor user experience.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#54

Post by mediocrejoker »

dawnerd wrote: post #32
reificator wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure I don't matter to Apple anymore, but the touchbar is the reason I haven't upgraded my laptop yet. I enjoy having an Apple laptop to complement my Windows and Linux desktops, but if the touchpad doesn't go away by the time I decide not to wait any longer, I'll probably grab something else. Maybe a Chromebook with a replacement OS, maybe an Ubuntu or Fedora laptop. Probably not Windows as it's mainly for games…

You know they sell a version without touchbar right?

With half the ports and a lower-powered CPU though, and not at all if you want 15"

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#55

Post by crankylinuxuser »

I'd rather just buy decent hardware to begin with and not gimmicky crap like a 1280x80 pixel screen jammed onto an arm chip on a laptop. Nope. I heard its especially fun if you have to reinstall - you need both firmwares or the machine goes in frowny mac mode.

I'd much rather put time in a decent Linux desktop. You don't need neuromancer-syle cyberpunk interfaces to make a really nice Linux system. And you can pretty much do whatever you want, rather than have to break Apple's "standards" for something that doesn't resemble brushed aluminum dogshit.

(psst, look at username. I'm even somewhat OK with Windows, given some of my 3d design workflow is there. My last job was a linux shop with Macs.. Hated the macs every second.)

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#56

Post by [deleted] »

simcop2387 wrote: post #42
saagarjha wrote: post #22

> Things got even worse when Apple "reinvented" the Play/Pause button in High Sierra. Actually, this was introduced midway through macOS Sierra; https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer is available in macOS 10.12.1+. > Buttons rock. It's always faster to tap, not slide. If you press Fn, the slider will go away and the "normal" function buttons will appear. > I want to have instant access to Finder, anyw…

> Press the power button. In older macbooks I've used, this also would put the system into suspend mode. That's fine, but it would also disconnect any terminals on remote systems because the system would no longer be on. Is this still the case or has that changed recently? For a coffee break button I wouldn't want to have to reconnect to everything I was working on before, or have to worry about any long running proc…

[deleted]

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#57

Post by s73v3r_ »

everyone wrote: post #43

How do you use a computer without function keys?

I do it every day. The function keys to me always hid functionality, and I never found it easy to discover what they did. Usually there was another, and better documented way to do whatever they did anyway.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#58

Post by huebnerob »

I started remapping the Caps Lock key to the Escape command when I got my tbMBP, and now it's the very first thing I do on every single computer I start using, touch bar or not. MacOS even now offers this as a 1st party option in system preferences, it works phenomenally. I even love, at a visceral level, the balanced symmetry of ESC and ENTER being opposite each other.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#59

Post by saagarjha »

runjake wrote: post #44
saagarjha wrote: post #22

> Things got even worse when Apple "reinvented" the Play/Pause button in High Sierra. Actually, this was introduced midway through macOS Sierra; https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mediaplayer is available in macOS 10.12.1+. > Buttons rock. It's always faster to tap, not slide. If you press Fn, the slider will go away and the "normal" function buttons will appear. > I want to have instant access to Finder, anyw…

> Don't do this. Use AppleScript to watch for changes, instead of polling. Could you provide more info about this, or even better, an actionable code example?

I'm on mobile, so I can't write code for you (plus, the code is going to be ugly since it relies on a C framework). However, I can give you some pointers; one, you'll need to create some sort of app, since it will need to continuously run with a run loop. You'll want to look into the Accessibility/OSA APIs and register an AXObserver.
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