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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

#361

Post by melling »

bisby wrote: post #284
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…

As a vim user, esc is pretty important. I would say the author clearly knows very little computer specs: "The MacBook Pro had options with 2.4 gigahertz dual-core processors back in 2010. Anything new in 2016? Not really, well… nope." Because a 2010 2.4ghz dual core is identical to a 2016 2.4 ghz dual core.... I thought we got over comparing processors purely by their clock speed a long time ago. (I will agree that t…

Do you mean Ctrl-[?

The ESC key in vim can lead to RSI:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11443012/how-to-remap-key...

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

#363

Post by kejaed »

blowski wrote: post #213
kejaed wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, what is driving the need for a new laptop from a 2014 version?

I don't need a new one, but my wife does as her one is the Macbook Pro from 2009 and is now extremely slow, and the battery lasts about 20 minutes. So I was going to buy a new one for me, and give her my current one. As you say, the 2014 is a great model - I'm using it right now, and it's plenty sufficient for everything I do.

Ah the hand-me-down train, I know it well. Brothers and nieces supply the demand for a generation or two old iDevices and gives me a bit of a way to cut into the purchase price of the new shiny.

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

#364

Post by pilif »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #308
pilif wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This would make a lot more sense if Apple had switched the iPhone to USB-C as well yes. it would have. And this is the actual problem there. Lightning is just another way of controlling their walled-garden around iOS and I really hate it for that reason. But that's beside the point of the port choice of the new Macs: The phones always have a lightning port, so the cable connecting to them will always have a lighting…

> [USB-C] in-fact until yesterday was only supported by one single machine made by Apple Really, have a look at this [1] half-year-old list of 10 non-Apple laptops that have USB-C ports... Of course pretty much all of these have USB-A ports too, because their manufacturers don't have a blind following and actually have to compete with each other. [1] http://windowsreport.com/usb-c-laptops/

I think you might have misunderstood me.

I didn't want to say that USB-C was only supported by Apple.

What I meant was that of all the devices that Apple makes, until yesterday only one supported USB-C, so shipping the new iPhone not just without Headphone Jack but also with a cable that can only be used with the minority of all their computers would really have been a strange move (plus, there's no small USB-C power brick yet, so they would have had to produce one of those too - or give you their 29W one for free which would probably have been a bit too expensive)

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

#365

Post by mcphage »

seanwilson wrote: post #227
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 consider myself a developer, and I almost never use the Fn and ESC keys on my Mac. ESC usage just off the top of my head: cancelling any dropdown (e.g. IDE autocomplete, browser autocomplete, Spotlight, quick file search in Atom/Sublime), cancelling any OK/cancel dialog (e.g. save as), the ESC + '.' sequence in Bash to get the last word of the last command. I could map ESC to the caps lock key I suppose.

If you go to the current Apple homepage, the first image they present you with shows the Esc key right there. So all of those things you currently do with it? You'll still be able to do with it.

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

#366

Post by readitmeow »

bisby wrote: post #284
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…

As a vim user, esc is pretty important. I would say the author clearly knows very little computer specs: "The MacBook Pro had options with 2.4 gigahertz dual-core processors back in 2010. Anything new in 2016? Not really, well… nope." Because a 2010 2.4ghz dual core is identical to a 2016 2.4 ghz dual core.... I thought we got over comparing processors purely by their clock speed a long time ago. (I will agree that t…

What does an external keyboard give you that you can't get from a laptop keyboard? I like the macbook pro keyboard. I plug in two monitors and I'm good to go. Vim users should remap somewhere closer. I use cap locks. Will that not be possible anymore?

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

#367

Post by eatbitseveryday »

derefr wrote: post #245
ekianjo wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Recent generations, yes. vi was designed for a keyboard where the Escape key was where the Caps Lock key is today. When Escape ended up in a hard-to-reach place on the 103-key layout, vi users sighed and rolled with it (and new users didn't know any better.)

> the Escape key was where the Caps Lock key is today

Apparently it was where the Tab key was[1] as metafunctor pointed out.

[1] http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

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

#368

Post by Kurtz79 »

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 find really amusing that after the Macbook reveal last year half of the response comments (in sites like ArsTechnica) were of the gist "just give me an updated Macbook Air, with the same form factor and a better screen".

Well, the base Macbook Pro model does exactly that. There is also an option (cheaper!) to keep the function keys.

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/10/no-new-macbook-airs-as-...

I might be getting old and grumpy, but more than anything else it boggles my mind when apparently everyone believes they should be the target user Apple (or Microsoft, or Google,or...) design their product for, and they consider a personal insult when that is not the case.

I don't think there was ever a time where the laptop market had so many options, at all price levels, many of those of such a high quality.

You don't like that a particular manufacturer is offering ? Vote with your wallet and choose another option, don't whine.

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

#369

Post by fuj »

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…

Here we go again... why are you people so blind in following a brand. Apple, Google, Tesla, etc. It's ridiculous. Whatever those companies do, it's always good. I use a mbp everyday, but I have no problems with saying how stupid this is and I don't even use vim.

Are you seriously saying, that removing the ESC and Functions keys is not issue and does not affect you, as developer?! If you use your mbp for Facebook or if you program in Visual Basic, then I might understand.

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

#370

Post by apetresc »

gre wrote: post #92
cypres wrote: post #24

It's funny they bring up devs using vim, because the only vim key they removed is Esc, which a lot of vim devs remaps to caps-lock or similar anyways. I almost never use the F keys, so if they kept the Esc key but removed the rest it would be perfect :)

I don't know anyone who remaps capslock to esc. It just sounds like something that is fun to say on hackernews. You didn't even say you use it, you said a lot of vim devs do, to which i would counter--they dont. The better choice is remapping capslock to ctrl.

I know lots of people who do (including myself). Just look at the support requests on Karabiner, etc.
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