Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore

blog.devteam.space

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 808 posts

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

#481

Post by Symbiote »

peatmoss wrote: post #299
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 mo…

Ask.

I was given a Macbook, and thought I'd get used to it, but I couldn't. Basic stuff is broken, like maximizing a window. Focus-follows-mouse doesn't work properly, and multiple windows from the same application are broken -- I'm not sure what the "correct" way to switch between multiple Firefox windows is, but it's clunky.

Linux on the Macbook can probably work if you're determined, but I'm (obviously) not a fan of Apple hardware. It was much easier to take a spare Dell desktop -- which has twice the RAM and a better CPU than the Macbook.

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

#482

Post by deong »

wlesieutre wrote: post #177
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 do some programming (Xcode and VS Code), I do some 3D art (blender, substance), and I do some photography (Lightroom). Not all of those programs will support it at launch, but I expect they will sooner or later. And the new screen sounds fabulous (I have a wide gamut external screen already, though it's AdobeRGB instead of P3, the MacBook will do better in reds and not quite as well in greens). I wish it were cheap…

If I were still a Mac user (back to Linux a year or so ago), I think I'd be annoyed by the new laptops. Not enraged...just annoyed a bit. It's not the end of the world, but like a lot of Apple's recent moves, I'm left with a feeling of "OK, but why?"

With both the headphone jack removal on the iPhone and the function keys here, Apple has used "but they're old" as part of the justification. Playing a slideshow showing me a keyboard from 1970 that had function keys is not itself any form of argument against function keys. Sure, the touch bar can serve the purpose of the escape key. Crucially however, so could the escape key. The demos look neat enough, but it's hard to envision a 0.5" strip of touch screen being all that broadly useful outside a few niche cases where a long linear control is just what you need (e.g., audio scrubbing).

It's not that I think these laptops are bad necessarily. It's more that I think they're gimmicky. Apple seems to do an awful lot of things these days that remind me of Samsung circa 2012 or so -- "press this button to send your heartbeat to your spouse" kind of stuff. Meanwhile, Microsoft looks to be absolutely on fire.

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

#483

Post by _ao789 »

readitmeow wrote: post #366
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…

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?

A delete button, instead of just backspace

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

#484

Post by baldfat »

lucisferre wrote: post #450
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 nearly exclusively use VIm and any other editor I use has a VIm mode plugin installed. I pretty much can't work productively in anything else. I can tell you that I haven't used Esc in ages. I have Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl (as it is a vastly more useful a key than Esc and Caps Lock is a much better position for it and is just as an extraneous as Esc is). I use Ctrl-C or Ctrl-[ to exit insert mode and it works just…

Steve Jobs is smiling from heaven. He hated keys.

But seriously I use esc all the time to come in and out of modes in VIM.

I also use it in VIM mode in RStudio, VS Code and many other text editors.

FUNCTION KEYS - I use them all day with my IDEs. F2 is my go to help files.

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

#485

Post by nikon »

blowski wrote: post #377
aesthetics1 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I thought this too, I then found this link which brings you to the Ubuntu XPS editions: http://pilot.search.dell.com/xps%2013%20ubuntu

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

#486

Post by laichzeit0 »

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 put it to you that you've never used a debugger if you've never used Fn keys.

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

#487

Post by airblade »

ThePawnBreak wrote: post #374
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!

Even better, install Alfred and bind a hotkey to your bash function.

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

#489

Post by copperx »

WayneBro wrote: post #270
thatswrong0 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the trackpad? Most Windows laptops I've tried recently still have trash trackpads.

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.

No, no, no. Travel distance is supremely important, and if you're working on a MacBook the trackpad is right there! I loathe all trackpads except MacBook's. In fact, I have a Magic Mouse and Keyboard that I use when I place my MacBook on a stand, and it feels tiring to move my hand so far to move the mouse.

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

#490

Post by sjm »

mindcrash wrote: post #88

> #1. No Escape and function keys The new MacBook Pro has Escape and function keys. You just need to summon them now if you want them. Phil Schiller even showed this in the demo! Also, context aware actions are much more useful. You saw that they even included a whole set for developers (and XCode) right? And you can bet other tools will soon follow. > #2 Power. Almost no improvement for RAM and a processor That it d…

There might be some useful things in the Xcode set, but anything that can't be done with a shortcut already? I find Cmd+ far easier to hit than reaching up to the F-keys. I imagine more-so if that action now has no tactility.
Post reply on HN