Guys.
You can configure the touch bar thing.
Let's give it a try before raging over it? Otherwise this and the other recent HN threads may be this year's version of the famous Slashdot "Apple introduces the iPod" thread.
New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
571–580 of 808 posts
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#572Bah, these entitled kids. I guess being old enough to remember keyboards before they had escape keys helps, but ␛ is just keyboard syntactic sugar for control left square bracket . Read your ASCII table! C-[ is even a quicker type avoiding RSIs from all those long pinky reaches. (More seriously, as much as it bothers me to retrain my pinky, most uses of the escape key would be many times better if the lefthand side o…
What do you mean by that last line? Well for one thing the bar is customizable by each app, but still, from the examples, they show very clear icons of function.
This is already far superior than just F1, F2, etc, which are far far more cryptic than a descriptive icon.
That's the thing, most apps already do use F keys for custom bindings, but you have to manually memorize them for each different app. Here, you at least get to see the correct icon in each program you're using.
And as a bonus, you get variable size buttons, sliding input, colors, and much more that just isn't possible with simple buttons.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#573Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
You, sir, are absolute rigth.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#574Earlier 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…
Is anyone else tired of all this "walled garden" blather? They designed Lightning because it best solved their needs. Why the specious and unprovable claim it's to lock people out? Can you read their minds? (Sure, down-vote away, HN groupthink always wins...)
In order to add lightning support to a device of yours you need to be part of the MFI program which comes with NDAs, influence on functionality through Apple and, of course, a license fee per unit you ship.
If lightning was purely about the technical advantages it provides, they would have made it an open standard or at least documented it.
There were some technical reasons for not going with MicroUSB of course, but don't tell me that their MFI licensing model isn't a huge reason for a proprietary connector.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#575Aside from cost, is there any reasonable technical reason to not have 32/64GB options available? My desktop in 2000 had 2GB of ram, and I'm shocked that 16 years later my laptop maxes at 16GB. I remember in 2009 building a server with 32GB and the memory was only a few hundred for decent ECC RAM.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#576I 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…
But apple fanboys will keep buying it
That said, most of the other stuff you say is true.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#577Earlier 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?
Have you never used a quality, full-sized mechanical keyboard? There's something kind of joyful about clickety-clacking away.
Maybe my hands are too big, but I am just not really comfortable typing on a laptop keyboard. It's not as bad as trying to do anything on a miniscule on-screen keyboard on a phone, but I still tend to hit at least two or three keys at once far too often.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#578Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then just map Esc to Caps Lock if you like. Unless you feel Caps Lock is still critical for commenting on YouTube videos, in that case I guess the new MBP is just a useless paperweight.
Nope - at the moment, my CAPS lock does nothing. But I'm not going to adjust my habit of where to find the ESC key just so I can have some pointless colourful lights.
Instead you could adjust your habit of where to find the ESC key for the sake of ergonomics (Caps Lock is much bigger and closer), like I did years ago, and take the colorful lights as a bonus.
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#579Earlier 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…
Do you mean Ctrl-[? The ESC key in vim can lead to RSI: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11443012/how-to-remap-key...
So can repeated use of keyboard chords. Not to mention the absolute position and shape of the control key can change based on the type of keyboard you're using (such as wired apple keyboard vs. wireless vs. built-in).
Re: New MacBook Pro Is Not a Laptop for Developers Anymore
#580If you already have a Mac, the upside of this release of limited machines (up to 16GB) is that it will intrinsically force Mac developers to refrend from designing BigMemory applications.
So if I currently have a 16GB Mac, it is likely that its useful life will be longer than if 32GB or 64GB Macs suddenly become mainstream and you find that your 16GB Mac cannot run anymore the latest and greatest apps so you are forced to buy a new Mac.
This also sort of happens with the Windows ecosystem, where the RAM-based licensing of Windows 10 for OEMs naturally drives manufacturers to offer machines with less RAM so its pricing is more attractive.