16-inch MacBook Pro • Hacker News Board

I didn't have a touchbar but wouldn't the escape key have been the easiest non-physical key to reach without looking, due to its indexed location? Or was the problem that it wasn't always exposed by the software?

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#94

Post by jamroom » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:57 PM UTC

barrowclift wrote: post #72

Genuinely curious, why did so many developers ask for the return of the physical Escape key when you could easily re-map it to caps lock? Before this was an officially supported option, I always hated having to do big hand-shimmies every time I needed to press the escape key, which is quite often for programs like vim!

For me it is 25 years of vi muscle memory.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#95

Post by Keats » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

chinhodado wrote: post #3

> Featuring a new Magic Keyboard with a redesigned scissor mechanism and 1mm travel for a more satisfying key feel, the 16-inch MacBook Pro delivers the best typing experience ever in a Mac notebook. Feels like they claim "best typing experience" every time they release a new laptop.

Their 2018 MacBook is by far the best typing experience I had on a laptop. Other laptop keyboards would be happy with just writing down what I just typed, the MacBook goes one step further and doubles many letters. That's after 6 months of use and 95% of the time using an external keyboard.

Meanwhile, every time I take out my 6 years old Thinkpad T440s the keyboard feels nice instantly.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#96

Post by crusso » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

dashwav wrote: post #61

throwanem wrote: post #17

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

The escape key will be especially welcome by me, as I found the touchbar exceptionally hard to deal with, and I would often have to hit it three or four times to get vim to exit insert mode. I actually didn't have much trouble with the arrow keys, despite all the negative feedback I saw for them online. Hopefully this trend continues and they can iterate on this model even further.

I remapped caps lock to escape and it's been wonderful. The oversized caps lock key on keyboards is an inexplicably bad UI choice anyway.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#97

Post by fulafel » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

crusso wrote: post #89

I have a TouchBar MacBook and I was pretty peeved about the escape key at first, but once I remapped the caps lock key to escape I never looked back. The caps lock key is worthless anyway. That said, the only cool use for the TouchBar that I've noted is with iTerm2. Changing terminal colors on the fly from the TouchBar is actually kinda nifty.

The Caps Lock key is reserved to be remapped as Ctrl in many people's setups.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#98

Post by vcavallo » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

dashwav wrote: post #61

throwanem wrote: post #17

I'm astonished and pleased to see they walked back the two worst things about the original Touch Bar MBPs - the lack of a physical Escape key, and the full-size left and right arrow keys. The lack of physical function keys remains regrettable, and the Touch Bar is still no worthy substitute, but perhaps this is a sign that Apple is finally interested in listening to feedback from its long-term customer base, even if…

The escape key will be especially welcome by me, as I found the touchbar exceptionally hard to deal with, and I would often have to hit it three or four times to get vim to exit insert mode. I actually didn't have much trouble with the arrow keys, despite all the negative feedback I saw for them online. Hopefully this trend continues and they can iterate on this model even further.

there are great alternatives to reaching up for ‘esc’ in vim. ctrl-[ is my favorite. the ol double-pinkie

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#99

Post by pcr910303 » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:59 PM UTC

OMG, I'm very depressed as a user who loves the butterfly mechanism. I hate the wobbly feeling that the scissor mechanism produces. Apple didn't need to return to the scissor mechanism, it should have reiterated the design. I'm very disappointed that Apple just gave up & used the safe way of regressing back.

It feels like Apple is losing the spirit of doing things itself, whether other people dislikes it. Apple is more and more becoming a usual company that just does what consumers demands. And I'm sad with that.

Re: 16-inch MacBook Pro

#100

Post by vcavallo » Wed, Nov 13, 2019, 1:59 PM UTC

ascagnel_ wrote: post #85

dashwav wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The escape key will be especially welcome by me, as I found the touchbar exceptionally hard to deal with, and I would often have to hit it three or four times to get vim to exit insert mode. I actually didn't have much trouble with the arrow keys, despite all the negative feedback I saw for them online. Hopefully this trend continues and they can iterate on this model even further.

I remapped `jj` to escape (shortly before the touchbar was announced), because I disliked either having to move my hand or use both hands to get out of insert mode. map! jj

ctrl-[ works out of the box