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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

#291

Post by ixtli »

easytiger wrote: post #262
ixtli wrote: post #123

Sadly this seems to be the same old pile-on that happens after every apple product announcement: > #1. No Escape and function keys [...] The Escape and Function keys on the laptops have been abandoned in favor of a touch bar that changed depending on the application that is being used. They went out of their way to display the escape key and many other contextual keys with Terminal.app in the foreground† They did thi…

yea because a soft key in a different location is the same as a tactile key where it has always been.

It's programmable. I'm sure iTerm2 will allow you to make the whole damn thing an escape key if you want. Also sure, its not a physical button, but it's still pretty dishonest to go around saying they removed the key and thus it is no longer a "developer computer." This pretty clearly implies that the functionality is lost which is easily proven false.

I'm not even trying to _defend_ Apple here. I don't even really like laptops, though I might have to buy one. I just hate these surface-y pile-ons that happen after every hardware announcement that seem an attempt to mask an aesthetic argument of "i don't like apple's products" as technical one.

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

#292

Post by apricot »

masklinn wrote: post #57
slg wrote: post #23

This doesn't even get into the dongle problem. The simplest example is that if you want to hook up Apple's flagship phone up to their flagship laptop for development, you need a dongle. And if you want to share one of their flagship wired headphones between the two devices, you need another dongle. Therefore if you want to connect three of Apple's flagship devices together on a daily basis, you can't go anywhere with…

> The simplest example is that if you want to hook up Apple's flagship phone up to their flagship laptop for development, you need a dongle. Why would you bother with a dongle when you can get a Type C — Lightning cable for the same price?

MACBOOK: Must Acquire Costly Bunches Of Other Kit

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

#293

Post by kaolinite »

I'm on mobile so not sure if anyone else has pointed this out but Apple mentioned in the keynote that the escape key is still present when using the terminal. There is also a way to bring up the full row of function keys.

Personally I think this is the great advantage of the touch bar. The only app that I personally use the Esc key in has it available, but all other apps use the space for more appropriate shortcuts. Plus it can be customised too (finally I can add a screenshot button!), although not per app yet, as far as I can tell.

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

#294

Post by Etheryte »

whalesalad wrote: post #134

The new TouchBar is fully defeatable and can behave exactly like an old school fn key row. This post is totally devoid of substance and should actually be flagged.

No tactile feedback means no go for many people for obvious reasons.

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

#295

Post by mwill »

I may be asking too much here, but I hope someone comes along with a laptop with amazing build quality, amazing linux support, and hackintosh support (XCode).

I've been holding off replacing my old MBP because none of the new models have wowed me. I got a laptop sized tumor on my budget just waiting to be removed by some company with a viable product.

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

#296

Post by pilif »

slg wrote: post #159
pilif wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you need a dongle or an USB-C to Lightning cable. Those exist. And so do any USB-C to any other USB-Plug cables. Considering that Apple revises their hardware builds about every four years, it makes sense to move to strictly USB-C now as two years from now, I'm quite sure no more peripheral will come out that has anything but USB-C. So within the next 2-3 years you'll have collected heaps of USB-C cables that will…

Like I said in another post, is a new single purpose cable a solution for a missing dongle if I still have to carry the old cable with me too? Great, I don't need a USB-C to USB-A dongle, I just need both my USB-C to lightning and USB-A to lightning cables. It is the same problem, just shifting around the inconvenience. And if USB-C is so great and the future of all tech, why isn't Apple moving to it on their mobile…

>And if USB-C is so great and the future of all tech, why isn't Apple moving to it on their mobile devices?

because the proprietary Lightning plug allows them to control who is connecting to their phones and it allows them to charge for the privilege of doing so.

What's happening on the other end of that USB-Cable that's the question. My guess: In the package of the next (or the one after) they will ship an USB-C to Lightning cable.

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

#297

Post by sveiss »

_ix wrote: post #274
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.

How do you achieve this with just System Preferences? On 10.11.6, I see the System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys allows re-mapping to Nothing, Control, Option, and Command, but not Escape. Is this a macOS Sierra thing? Tell me your secrets!

It's a Sierra thing (and only the most recent update, 10.12.1, I believe).

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

#298

Post by copperx »

echelon wrote: post #111
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…

I'm a vim user. Why in the world did they remove ESC? That's one of my most frequently used keys. And no, I don't think remapping it is a great idea. If I had to use this for work I would protest.

Most frequently used keys? I would agree that in Windows using the Esc key is common, but in OS X really isn't.

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

#299

Post by peatmoss »

laddng wrote: post #18

I've had a good, satisfying run with MacBook Pros, but now I'm stepping off the Apple train. I understand that Apple is trying to go in a new direction with the new MacBook Pros, and I won't complain about it. I am now simply moving to an Arch Linux setup on an old Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 to continue living inside the Terminal.

A couple years back, I was (increasingly un)happily using Mac OS X on a MBP. I made the switch back to a Free *nix and a tiling window manager.

While it's gotten some eye-rolls from tech friends, the UX of my current system is amazing. I have an almost vanilla Xmonad configuration, combined with dmenu, and passwordstore / dmenu integration. It simply rocks.

I anticipate soon starting a new job with a firm that has more or less standardized around Apple hardware. I find myself kind of dreading going back to a Mac. I may decide to be "that guy" and ask for something like the Thinkpad Carbon X1 in lieu of the standard issue equipment.

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

#300

Post by pjmlp »

chairmanwow wrote: post #102
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…

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

I am a developer and don't use neither vi or Emacs.
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