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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

#61

Post by samastur »

matthewmacleod wrote: post #20

Counter point: I have a 2017 Pro with the Touch Bar, and it's pretty nice. I got used to the escape key in a couple of days, and I've found that it tends to keep me away from the trackpad more. Some of the UI on it is great – trimming clips in Quicktime feels lovely, and scoping searches in Dash. Some of it isn't as useful, like tab switching in Safari, but I never find that it gets in the way at all. Honestly I'm no…

We are touch typists ;)

Seriously though, I don't look at my keyboard and therefore have no idea what is on touchbar at any moment. I am not offended as some by its existence, but I also don't find it useful except touchid bit.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#63

Post by SpuriousSignals »

SN76477 wrote: post #5

I think we are going to look back on this as a dark age of human interfaces. too much touch, not enough tactile

Will need to wait until the year 2375 for the next renaissance: https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/5/54/...

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#64

Post by saagarjha »

quantumleap22 wrote: post #46
tcfunk wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Press the power button. Where is this power button? I've been searching for it since I got this laptop. Edit: Wow thanks, don't know how I missed that.

Lol Apple made it impossible to understand how to turn on and off the laptop and removed the startup sound leaving you with zero feedback when you start the laptop for an eternity. Awesome work.

> Apple made it impossible to understand how to turn on and off the laptop

Open the lid.

> leaving you with zero feedback when you start the laptop for an eternity

1. Startup doesn't take long.

2. There's a progress bar when booting.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#65

Post by threatofrain »

huebnerob wrote: post #58

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.

If you're a Vimmer this is invaluable. ctrl-c and esc feel terrible after that.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#66

Post by masklinn »

rbinv wrote: post #19
ef4 wrote: post #8

Thanks, I have been dreading the upcoming time when my pre-touchbar macbook pro is too old and I will check out these tips when it does. One bit of feedback: > RAM usage: Useless. In modern OS it's always nearly 100%. That's natural. A good ram usage indicator is still really useful, and along with cpu and network usage it's one of the first things I install on any machine. The issue is that your indicator needs to s…

> This makes it clear when some app is starting to blow up and consume a huge amount. And how often does that actually happen anymore, really? Yes, Chrome and friends are memory hogs, but a constant RAM indicator? If a MacBook (or any other device for that matter) starts swapping, you'll know right away.

> And how often does that actually happen anymore, really?

Every few weeks to a few times a week depending what I'm working on/with.

> If a MacBook (or any other device for that matter) starts swapping, you'll know right away.

1. not necessarily, SSDs make swapping way less problematic than it used to be

2. ideally you want to nip the problematic process before it locks up the entire machine

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#67

Post by 4ad »

huebnerob wrote: post #58

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.

> I started remapping the Caps Lock key to the Escape command

I could't care less about this, but...

> even love, at a visceral level, the balanced symmetry of ESC and ENTER being opposite each other.

now that you mentioned it, I absolutely HAVE to do it!

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#68

Post by saagarjha »

wwweston wrote: post #51
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 c…

> 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.

No. I only suggested the buttons because the author of this post thought that the slider was "bad". I don't buy their reasoning; you don't even have to look down to see the slider's progress because macOS will mirror it smack-dab in the middle of your display.

I really think that the author's complaints show that they really haven't been using macOS the way it's normally used. The Touch Bar is not your Notification Center. It's not your menu bar. It's not your Dock. It has a very clear purpose, and I feel that the author is just trying to give Touch Bar functionality that they wished it had because they just don't know about the other built-in features. My guess is that they haven't really used macOS (i.e. they're coming from another OS, and are used to what that provides), but take this with a grain of salt because I have no evidence to back it up.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#69

Post by masklinn »

everyone wrote: post #43

How do you use a computer without function keys?

Normally? The only program I use regularly which needs function keys is htop. The only other I can think of is gitk, and I try to avoid that thing.

MacOS/OSX doesn't really have a history of using function keys, so pretty much the only software which does is stuff which was "ported" from other unices where relying on function keys is more standard.

Re: Making the Touch Bar useful by abandoning Apple guidelines

#70

Post by _qbjt »

wiredfool wrote: post #14

I’ve been living with a touchbar machine for about two months now, and the only useful thing about it for me is the touchid spot. Escape, slow as hell. Brushing the touchbar and bringing up the man app on some random argument, useless and annoying. It’s gotten a lot better now that I’ve switched it from context to function keys, and am using an external keyboard 95% of the time. It’s really my third favorite laptop t…

It really is a useless gimmick. Even when limiting it to the standard brightness, volume, etc. controls, I find myself accidentally touching it and triggering some unwanted function. I really hope Apple abandons it or at the very least, offers a MBP with top of the line specs and standard function keys.
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