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A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

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Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#51

Post by hellofunk »

duozerk wrote: post #29
pyrophane wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For vim either map a key sequence "jj" or "fd" to esc or remap caps lock to esc. Many vim users do that anyway for the convenience. Not sure about emacs (I use spacemacs). Does esc come in for more than just cancelling commands? If you don't need to use your caps lock for ctrl for emacs, the same remap to esc would work as well. Anyway, basically boils down to two things: 1) the touch bar escape is fine for occasiona…

Emacs user here, I think I never use escape; I use C-g to cancel a command.

The idea behind evil mode in emacs is to not use the control or meta keys for most things, since they are awkwardly placed. Evil mode activates the Esc key just like in vim.

evil-escape module for evil mode adds the 'fd' functionality discussed here.

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#52

Post by hellofunk »

jimmaswell wrote: post #34
fergie wrote: post #13

I hadn't considered the removal of the esc key from a vi/emacs perspective. Is this something that can be lived with?

By just getting a real laptop, yes. I can't believe how often Apple gets away with taking away core functionality like headphone jacks and vga ports, but unfortunately as long as there's an Apple logo on it then people will buy it, for an absurd markup. I wonder if the Apple Car will have no parking brake because it's not used often enough.

Actually, the Apple Car is more aggressive: they got rid of the car itself!

(because they decided not to make one, actually)

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#53

Post by hellofunk »

tastythrowaway2 wrote: post #31
fergie wrote: post #13

I hadn't considered the removal of the esc key from a vi/emacs perspective. Is this something that can be lived with?

I've always used Ctrl-[ instead of escape. it sends the same character code but keeps my hands at the home row. great for when you're on a roll and don't want to break your flow.

Which is why 'fd' as a key combo is even more useful than Ctrl-[. The keys are right there on the home row buttons themselves!

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#54

Post by [deleted] »

jlg23 wrote: post #48
nilkn wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is a large 15" laptop with a discrete GPU a successor to the MacBook Air? The problem I have with that statement is that "the MBP" is an ambiguous term. It's a product lineup, and there are products in that lineup that are not in any way the successor to the Air.

> How is a large 15" laptop with a discrete GPU a successor to the MacBook Air? The article is talking about the 13": I’ve moved from a MacBook Air 13" to a MacBook Pro 13".

[deleted]

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#55

Post by hellofunk »

threeseed wrote: post #12
enraged_camel wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>How does a programmer evaluate this machine without discussing at least one of vi and emacs, and the absence of real Esc and Fn keys? What percentage of programmers use vi or emacs?

Quite a lot. If you are doing anything on remote servers it's likely to be the only text editor. But I guarantee you that 99.999% of them only know (and need to know) the basics e.g. saving file, search, find/replace etc. I would say maybe 1% of developers actually use them as an IDE given how poor they are compared to something like IntelliJ or Visual Studio.

I see vim or emacs used in just about every programmer meetup or dev on-site I visit. Every single one. And the numbers are much, much higher than 1%.

If you get used to editing vim or the extreme ease of laying out windows on the fly, jumping between window configurations and saving UIs in emacs, then even IntelliJ seems quite old-fashioned. I've tried 3 times to switch to CLion by JetBrains and every time I immediately miss all the ways emacs has streamlined my development life. (I use emacs with vim-emulation)

Vim keyboard macros (supported in emacs), the use of the "." key for all kinds of editing magic, and other things are extreme improvements over old-school editing that most "modern" editors use. The makers of VS Studio seem to think that a better autocompletion is going to improve the lives of developers, and other similar cockpit-like features. It's just basic text editing prowess that actually improves their lives, and that is where vim and emacs shine.

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#57

Post by jzelinskie »

epberry wrote: post #14

A coworker got the new MBP and didn't realize that he wasn't actually clicking the trackpad for two days. If I didn't know better I also would've been fooled. In my opinion the haptic feedback and the huge trackpad are actually the best features of the new MBP.

> In my opinion the haptic feedback and the huge trackpad are actually the best features of the new MBP.

It's not really new. It was introduced with the early 2015 MBP. You can even get it in the new magic trackpads.

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#59

Post by gutnor »

nilkn wrote: post #50
gutnor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite hard to make a "Pro" machine targeted at professionals with a product line up of 4 laptop (and maybe 4 laptop total in the whole Mac line) with very little configuration options. That's the most obvious conclusion of all those MBP review and comment. Apple just serve a small slice of the consumer market that intersect a narrow slice of the professional market. That narrow slice just gets smaller with each…

I think this is an okay viewpoint, but it forces the conclusion that Apple has never made a Pro machine (because the MacBook Pro lineup has never had that many options and configurations). Personally I'm fine with that conclusion, but it's not consistent with the narrative that this is the first MacBook Pro which is not for professionals.

I remember people always complaining about how the MBP was not for professionals.

Lack of ports, lack of DVD reader, lack of configuration options, lack of OSX corporate feature, lack of customisability, lack of Windows, too expensive, ...

Re: A Programmer Evaluates the MacBook Pro (Touch Bar)

#60

Post by JustSomeNobody »

frusciante29 wrote: post #15

The Pro in Macbook Pro does not stand for "programmer". The device is not catering to the past. The world is not full of UNIX era programmers. Some future programmers are getting their first laptop during the coming holidays. If you think Esc then I is the future of programming tools, I don't know what to tell you.

> The world is not full of UNIX era programmers.

It is actually still full of *NIX programmers. What's your real point?

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