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New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

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Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#251

Post by rickyc091 »

BlackjackCF wrote: post #223
chairmanwow wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many common applications that developers use have many keybindings that heavily rely upon the Escape key (Vim for sure).

I'm a big Vim user and I honestly wouldn't mind too much if I were to just remap the Esc key to capslock.

Vim user as well, while I haven't used the new device. Judging from the distance and where I hit the ESC key on the current keyboard, it shouldn't pose any issues. Even if they did remove it, the power of vim is the ability to just remap keys.

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#252

Post by tincholio »

easytiger wrote: post #156
m3ta wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've developed on a MacBook Pro for the last 5 years in vim and I have never touched the escape key or any of the F keys, ever. If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. Rebind esc to something else (like capslock) or learn another pattern that has more ergonomic value.

A lot of us live in a transient computing world, where we neither own nor have permissions to edit the bindings. Having one host with a binding and 6 other client's envs without, would a context switch failure invoke

ctrl-[ works as escape. Also, what kind of devs don't get to customize their setup??

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#253

Post by [deleted] »

ericjang wrote: post #37

I dislike this post intensely. The opinion comes across as uncharitable, as the author probably has not used this Macbook Pro yet. How can you (alexeysemeney) be so sure? I consider myself a developer, and I almost never use the Fn and ESC keys on my Mac. Everybody uses the computer differently, but I'm pretty sure this is not a deal-breaker for most. One could also argue that the touch bar might lead to innovative d…

[deleted]

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#254

Post by goerz »

As someone doing highly CPU intensive computations, I would have appreciated more than 2 cores (or 4, with hyperthreading, I assume) in the 13' MBP. Granted, most of the time I can use my 80 core remote compute node, but it would still be nice to have a bit more parallel CPU power for local development

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#255

Post by rikkus »

ekianjo wrote: post #166
m3ta wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've developed on a MacBook Pro for the last 5 years in vim and I have never touched the escape key or any of the F keys, ever. If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. Rebind esc to something else (like capslock) or learn another pattern that has more ergonomic value.

> If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. So generations of Vim users are doing it wrong but you have the right answer?

I've been a vi user since 1996 and have always remapped the Esc key because it's too far from home. I had assumed others also did this because I've never seen a vi user who works without some customisation on commonly used boxes and it seems like one of the obvious first changes to make.

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#256

Post by zwily »

base698 wrote: post #224
yoz-y wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The escape key can be right there on the capslock (option to be enabled in System Preferences -> Keyboard). Using Esc key heavily with its default location is not practical at all. As for the F-keys I think this is more of a problem.

I had to install a third party program to get that to work, do they let you do that now?

Yes, it's an option in the normal Keyboard Modifier Keys system pane now.

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#257

Post by drakenot »

ekianjo wrote: post #166
m3ta wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've developed on a MacBook Pro for the last 5 years in vim and I have never touched the escape key or any of the F keys, ever. If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. Rebind esc to something else (like capslock) or learn another pattern that has more ergonomic value.

> If you're using vim and reaching for the escape key you are doing it wrong imho. So generations of Vim users are doing it wrong but you have the right answer?

Remapping Esc has always been one of the first tips that I read from experienced Vim users.

I've had Caps Lock remapped to Esc for years now.

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#258

Post by kristjansson »

yoz-y wrote: post #125
chairmanwow wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many common applications that developers use have many keybindings that heavily rely upon the Escape key (Vim for sure).

The escape key can be right there on the capslock (option to be enabled in System Preferences -> Keyboard). Using Esc key heavily with its default location is not practical at all. As for the F-keys I think this is more of a problem.

IIRC Support for Caps Lock -> ESC mapping in System Preferences is new as of 10.12 (or maybe 10.12.1?), so many people may not know that's an option. I didn't until I read your post and checked!

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#259

Post by mrmondo »

ericjang wrote: post #37

I dislike this post intensely. The opinion comes across as uncharitable, as the author probably has not used this Macbook Pro yet. How can you (alexeysemeney) be so sure? I consider myself a developer, and I almost never use the Fn and ESC keys on my Mac. Everybody uses the computer differently, but I'm pretty sure this is not a deal-breaker for most. One could also argue that the touch bar might lead to innovative d…

You are not the only one, took the words out of my mouth

Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

#260

Post by geodel »

Strange arguments in threads about new MBP. It is well known much more powerful laptop computers are available to developers for many many years. It is the nice combination of weight/size/screen/touchpad and Unix like OS all in one package that made people look beyond relative shortcomings. Individually none of the feature may be best but all above average together in one machine is not so common.

Advanced users might very well buy an objectively better computer than Apple's if they so wish. People are reacting as if Apple mandated touch bar in all computers in market.

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