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New 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#861

Post by dreamcompiler »

hittaruki wrote: post #801
dreamcompiler wrote: post #770

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Touch Bar feels to me like a stopgap measure from Apple because they don't yet have touch-sensitive screens on their laptops. Eventually Apple will have to put touch-sensitive screens on their laptops -- just like everybody else does -- and on that day the Touch Bar will be history. I know Apple doesn't think touch-sensitive screens on laptops are a good idea. I would have agreed with them 5 years ago. But every…

I dont think that is a good enough reason to add touch screen. Do you have a better reason for adding one? One of the reasons for me to keep using a Mac has been not having a touch screen. It has become very difficult to find non-Mac laptops without a touch screen now. I for one hope they never add it.

Personally I don't care. I already have a Dell XPS running Ubuntu and I never use the touch screen even though it has one. I just think the non-hacker marketplace has come to expect all screens to be touchable.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#862

Post by saberience »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #623
gattilorenz wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's some... creative usage of the verb "electrocute", which implies death. That said, I did feel the electric current when the 2012MBP was not grounded, but the 2017 model does not have the same problem.

When people tell me they were electrocuted I say, "oh, so you died?"

Language changes and evolves over time, this is normal and natural. Just because "elecrocuted" at one time only meant died from electricity, it doesn't mean it can't mean now that one simply got a jolt and didn't die.

Or do you still think "Google" just means a big number? Do you "literally" means "exactly" or can also be used to show strong feeling or emphasis.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#863

Post by liamdiprose »

chrischen wrote: post #843
liamdiprose wrote: post #841

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mapping the sequence 'jk' to Esc supercharged vim for me. Faster, but also helps me stay in the flow longer. Run `:inoremap jk ` to try it out.

I wonder if any people remap hjkl to jkl;. Having to shift my hands one key over always annoyed me.

I just use my index finger for both j and h. Are you used to the arrow keys? I noticed with jkl;, my fingers line up with the arrow-key directions.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#864

Post by breuleux »

monadic2 wrote: post #779
williamdclt wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can program your touchbar with something like BetterTouchTool. It's laughable that Apple ships the touchbar with such useless functionalities, but you can turn the touchbar into whatever you want, it's an amazing tool. For example, when I open iTerm I have buttons for my local development env (DB, redis, api, frontend, various microservices) color-coded by status and can start/stop them by tapping a button. You c…

> You can program your touchbar with something like BetterTouchTool. I just have no use for a touchbar. After all, I have a screen! I never look at my keyboard.... it’s all about tactile feedback, which the touchbar notoriously lacks.

I mean, you can always use more screen. On my touchbar I display the time, battery, weather. I also have a script to start a timer and display the time remaining on it (or the output of any script, really). It saves some screen estate. It's nice!

Also there are actions you can program on the touchbar that don't require looking at it. For instance I set it up so that sliding two fingers anywhere on the touchbar changes the volume.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#865

Post by derefr »

chrischen wrote: post #745
swang wrote: post #718

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone keeps talking about vi/emacs stuff. While that was annoying, the more annoying aspect was when macOS softlocked and I was unable to hit the chord (cmd+opt+esc) to get the kill task window because the touchbar froze as well. Having a virtual ESC key in software that can be frozen, where part of your keyboard chord to kill apps includes the ESC key is really, really, stupid and caused me lots of wasted time th…

Real Vi/emac users don’t use the esc key. It’s way too far frome home row.

On the keyboards vi was designed for, Escape was positioned where the Caps Lock key is now on modern US-101 keyboards. May as well just map it there.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#867

Post by dxxvi »

I have to work with a Windows/Linux laptop and a MacBook Pro. It's very inconvenient when the MBP keyboard doesn't have Home, End, PageUp, PageDown and Delete.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#868

Post by mr_isomies »

mr_custard wrote: post #382
alexggordon wrote: post #125

I was curious how the 13 inch was priced so I compared it to a new Dell XPS 13. Dell has a better processor (maybe, [2]) , but I couldn't find the option to upgrade the Dell to 4TB internal SSD, so I compared both with the 2 TB option. Ram is the same at 32GB. Dell came out to $2399[0] USD and Apple came out to $2999[1] USD. Dell Pros: * Row of function buttons (I've used BTT to customize my touch-bar to the point wh…

Useful figures, so thanks for providing those. It's been a few months since I last looked into the latest prices. I agree with you that it's still worth it. However, I feel that without comparing the OS and tight OS integration, this doesn't represent one of the most important aspects of a comparison between the two, when considering a purchase. I go through this same loop every time I buy a new machine... yes, usual…

For me, this idea that time invested on your machine is time lost to the void... just doesn't add up. Like, at all. Shouldn't one of the point of honing your craft be to become intimately knowledgeable about the tools that you use every single day?

I have some musician friends. They do that for a living. They've had the same guitars for years, maybe even decades. They know how the guitar works, how to change its strings & pick-ups, how it behaves in different rooms. They notice how it ages, how it breaks, how it _really_ works. When it breaks they get the exact same model. It's a good thing.

For me, the real tradeoff is getting locked-in into an ecosystem that is privately owned, profit driven. That's the real tax right there.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#869

Post by kayodelycaon »

dxxvi wrote: post #867

I have to work with a Windows/Linux laptop and a MacBook Pro. It's very inconvenient when the MBP keyboard doesn't have Home, End, PageUp, PageDown and Delete.

Fn+arrow keys and Command+arrow keys will give you most of the function you want.

Command+Delete functions like the Delete key you are used to.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#870

Post by samatman »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #733
MaintenanceMode wrote: post #632

Bringing back the escape key is such a admission of their original screw up. I'm glad they admitted it and reversed the design decision. But I'm still on a 2012 15" MacBook that's running strong. I normally would have updated but using my work 15" has been horrific between the dongles, the keyboard randomly dropping keys (last week "G" would not work, now it's back. The most infuriating thing about the touch bar, out…

The "real" Escape key is essential. I'm using a new 16" MBP at work and it's quite nice, but without the real Escape key I'd probably be cursing the computer every day. I thought I'd hate the touchbar, but I actually thought it was cute -- for about an hour. Then I realized it was just a useless gimmick and reset it to "Expanded Control Strip" which is Apple's euphemism for "Make the touchbar look and act just like t…

The last time this came up on HN (that I read) someone recommended Pock, so I'll pass on that recommendation.

https://pock.dev

This takes the touchbar from 'annoying' to 'ok this is kind of useful actually', for me at least. I spend a lot of time on a keyboard + trackball combo, but keep my laptop propped a bit for TouchID, zooming, and one or two other useful idioms.

I've been hiding the Dock for a solid decade, and it's a more useful default than, say, the illegible window snapshots Safari insists on offering over the obvious choice of favicon + a few letters of the title.

It's baffling to me that none of Chrome, Firefox, nor Safari, offer that interface for the touchbar on Mac.

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