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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

#371

Post by Spartan-S63 »

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…

As a fellow Vim user, I don't use the escape key anymore. It's awkward to hit and I rebind it to "jj" (or more recently "jk"). It's unergonomic to reach for the escape key where it customarily is. If it were where Caps Lock is, it would make much more sense.

That said, I don't like rotating my hand or remove my fingers from the home row.

It's really a non-issue because you can rebind keys so easily, it's not even funny. Everyone seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill.

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

#372

Post by VT_Drew »

awinder wrote: post #173
VT_Drew wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I don't understand all the outrage over the touchbar. It changes depending on your application. So can't you setup VIM so the touchbar displays a "normal" or "classic layout", which would display all the keys that the previous model had? I am far more disappointed in the elimination of magsafe and only having USB C ports.

The killer is that the lack of feedback on that bar would probably make it difficult to touch type the "buttons" on that classic layout

I am sure people could adjust to this. I am not certain how many people actually use those buttons without looking at the keyboard anyway. When I learned to type the function keys weren't included, I for one, always have to look when use a function key, and generally have to look when typing numbers too.

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

#373

Post by copperx »

jbmorgado wrote: post #277
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…

Well, he goes trough more than the bar. I have a 2013 15" MacBook Pro, the diference with the top of the line that came out yesterday comes down a slight bump in the dedicated Graphics Card (which I don't appreciate since I use CUDA a lot and as such I actually prefer the GTX 750M to a only slightly better AMD card in the new model), and a 0.1 GHz bump in the processor (back from the 2.3 GHz i7 my MacBook Pro has). I…

> ask for the same price can be something positive.

Didn't they bump up the base price?

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

#374

Post by ThePawnBreak »

Alex3917 wrote: post #89

Currently every time I open iTerm, I need to change directory into my project, spin up my virtual env, and then initialize some stuff within my virtualenv. Now I can map those commands to icons in the toolbar, rather than having to page through the history command each time. How is that not a huge improvement for developers? Any time you can replace a command or alias with a visual icon that's a significant reduction…

> Now I can map those commands to icons in the toolbar, rather than having to page through the history command each time.

Why not just create a bash function? Call it setupproj1, write the commands you need in a function ~/.bash_profile, export the function and that's it!

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

#375

Post by [deleted] »

trevor-e wrote: post #317
bisby wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I think rather than stop using vim people will remap the ESC key to something else, like caps lock, which many already do.

[deleted]

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

#376

Post by vlunkr »

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.

I'm feeling the same way. Clearly Apple doesn't care about the same things I do. The Pro is supposed to be for power users, and the touch bar to me feels like it's built for casual users(keyboard shortcuts for people who don't know keyboard shortcuts. I use almost no built in mac apps, so it's unlikely that I'll ever use it. It's just one more thing to raise the price and one more thing that can go wrong. Combined with the fact that I'd have to get a dock or a dock/monitor and things look super unappealing at this point. But they shaved off 1/2 a pound! that's better than having useful ports, right?

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

#377

Post by blowski »

aesthetics1 wrote: post #325
blowski wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an XPS 13 in 2008, and was really happy with it. The quality was much higher than most of the Dell laptops I've seen. Do you know how well they work with Linux?

They work excellent with Linux. Dell actually sells a "Developer Edition" of the XPS line with Ubuntu pre-installed.

Seems like the Developer Edition is EOL in the UK at least. I'll look for some reviews about the standard edition.

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

#378

Post by pilif »

busterarm wrote: post #347
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…

With the abysmally low margins typically made off of keyboards and mice along with the fact that the highend of the market is driven by desktop gamers, I think you're going to see plain USB Keyboards and Mice sticking around for a long, long, long, long time. Hell, I can still buy some of my favorite keyboards with a PS/2 connection or with an included adapter. I've been using external devices for these with my macbo…

> I think you're going to see plain USB Keyboards and Mice sticking around for a long, long, long, long time

I'm not saying the old USB A peripherals will stop to exist. I'm saying that two years from now every conceivable peripheral will be available with a USB-C plug or at least a USB-C to whatever they need cable.

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

#379

Post by sbarre »

tincholio wrote: post #252
easytiger wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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??

You'd be surprised. Some corporate environments keep machines pretty locked down in terms of what you can change in the System Preferences, or install on your own.

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

#380

Post by WayneBro »

untog wrote: post #319
WayneBro wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why any dev would want to use a touchpad of any kind? They're not nearly as precise as a mouse. They cause you to rotate your cuff even further than a mouse. Dragging and dropping things is more difficult with a touchpad. Touchpads all stink, including Apple's. Evoluent's vertical five button wireless mouse is where it's at. Everything else is second rate.

Because sometimes you need to work on the move? I like to get things done on flights, and there's no space for a mouse there. > Touchpads all stink, including Apple's. Couldn't disagree more. I've actually ended up getting a Magic Trackpad for my desk - the gestures etc are genuinely useful.

> Because sometimes you need to work on the move? I like to get things done on flights...

Uggh. That sounds like a terrible way to work. If open floor plans are bad, working on a flight has got to be even worse. I guess I'm lucky that I don't have to do any of that.

> I've actually ended up getting a Magic Trackpad for my desk...

Well, you're a rare bird then.

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