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New 13-inch MacBook Pro

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Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#934
post #865

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Real Vi/emac users don’t use the esc key. It’s way too far frome home row.

On the keyboards vi was designed for, Escape was positioned where the Caps Lock key is now on modern US-101 keyboards. May as well just map it there.

I'm puzzled by this claim.

The keyboard for the ADM-3A shows a Ctrl key to the left of A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADM-3A#Hardware

The VT100 shows CAPS LOCK to the left of A. https://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/chapter1.html#S1.1

So on which visual terminal was ESC to the left of A? Or are you perhaps referring to ex, an antecedent of vi, which was designed for hardcopy terminals? If so, which hardcopy terminal had ESC to the left of A? I've looked at the images for some and can't find that.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#935

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "real" Escape key is essential. I'm using a new 16" MBP at work and it's quite nice, but without the real Escape key I'd probably be cursing the computer every day. I thought I'd hate the touchbar, but I actually thought it was cute -- for about an hour. Then I realized it was just a useless gimmick and reset it to "Expanded Control Strip" which is Apple's euphemism for "Make the touchbar look and act just like t…

The last time this came up on HN (that I read) someone recommended Pock, so I'll pass on that recommendation. https://pock.dev This takes the touchbar from 'annoying' to 'ok this is kind of useful actually', for me at least. I spend a lot of time on a keyboard + trackball combo, but keep my laptop propped a bit for TouchID, zooming, and one or two other useful idioms. I've been hiding the Dock for a solid decade, and…

I tried out pock.dev a while ago, but didn't really find it useful. I just rarely use my dock, it's been hidden for years. I open almost everything with spotlight (Or Alfred a few years ago), and switching is just cmd + tab.

I do find the Touch Bar useful for music controls and scrubbing through a video, but that's about it.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#936

Bringing back the escape key is such a admission of their original screw up. I'm glad they admitted it and reversed the design decision. But I'm still on a 2012 15" MacBook that's running strong. I normally would have updated but using my work 15" has been horrific between the dongles, the keyboard randomly dropping keys (last week "G" would not work, now it's back. The most infuriating thing about the touch bar, out…

The "real" Escape key is essential. I'm using a new 16" MBP at work and it's quite nice, but without the real Escape key I'd probably be cursing the computer every day. I thought I'd hate the touchbar, but I actually thought it was cute -- for about an hour. Then I realized it was just a useless gimmick and reset it to "Expanded Control Strip" which is Apple's euphemism for "Make the touchbar look and act just like t…

I have the 2016 MBP, and the digital escape key makes me angry almost every single day, there's just no feedback whatsoever. And every so often I accidentally "press" it. Other than that, the only useful feature is music controls.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#937
post #930

I decided to switch back to the (new) MacBook Air instead. I feel that had the butterfly fiasco never happened, this generation of laptops may have just dumped the Touch Bar entirely, but instead, there were so many general keyboard complaints (escape key specifically, general Touch Bar complaints, and of course the butterfly keyboard complaints), that it is reasonable that they are trying to see if this new "reduced…

I'm considering switching to the Air as well. How have the first impressions been? I'm somewhat worried about using an Air for development performance-wise. For me the big factors are that I actually use functions keys (in Emacs, mostly) and just cost. My previous Macbook Pro (2011), which is in its death throes, at the time a top-of-the-line 13", was $1200. With aftermarket 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD, I managed to k…

So I am going to have an unsatisfactory answer, but maybe its helpful:

1. Performance was kind of a reason for the Air. I want a machine that gives me the perspective my users will have when using my software. 2. But doesn't that suck for actually building? Yes except... I also just have a nice computer on the network that I offload the actual rough tasks to. This might end up being a good solution for you too. 3. This might also future-proof you for the ARM switch. If you have a good build computer, and a cheap "interface" computer, you can switch to a new ARM computer in a bit with little pain: none of the the "real" stuff has to change.

It kinda sucks for multi-monitor though. It really struggles with it.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#938
post #717

Very interesting. I had assumed I'd buy a 13" Pro as a personal laptop replacement for my 2011 Air when they updated the keyboard. However, when the 2020 Air dropped, I snapped one up because it ticked all the boxes, and I really don't need the "power" of the Pro, especially given its presumed expense. I bought a loaded Air with 512gb which was I think $1650. Speccing out the Pro, the pricepoint for a similar machine…

> it's interesting how much faster the RAM on the Air is Isn't that just the difference between DDR4 and DDR3? Edit: Yes, I just confirmed that the last generation of MacBook Pros used DDR3 memory, whereas these new ones will use DDR4, so that's why there is such a big difference in speed. The new ones run at 3733MHz.

Ah. Looks like the store's "upgrade" button hasn't been updated to reflect the actual RAM speed. Or wasn't when i looked.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#939
post #717

Very interesting. I had assumed I'd buy a 13" Pro as a personal laptop replacement for my 2011 Air when they updated the keyboard. However, when the 2020 Air dropped, I snapped one up because it ticked all the boxes, and I really don't need the "power" of the Pro, especially given its presumed expense. I bought a loaded Air with 512gb which was I think $1650. Speccing out the Pro, the pricepoint for a similar machine…

Huh, I'd been holding out to see the new MBP but if this is how it compares to the Air I think that might be my choice. I've been using an old Air which does okay but I like the newer track pads and 4gb of RAM is painful with even a single browser window open.

Yup, that was my main issue. I always wanted a higher res screen than my 2011 but the 4gb was really the killer. That and, you can't even install MacOS Updates on 128gb if you have any photos :) I think 8Gb is plenty for "normal" air usage, but why not max it out to future-proof it.

Re: New 13-inch MacBook Pro

#940
post #717

Very interesting. I had assumed I'd buy a 13" Pro as a personal laptop replacement for my 2011 Air when they updated the keyboard. However, when the 2020 Air dropped, I snapped one up because it ticked all the boxes, and I really don't need the "power" of the Pro, especially given its presumed expense. I bought a loaded Air with 512gb which was I think $1650. Speccing out the Pro, the pricepoint for a similar machine…

If you look around, the difference between the i5 and i7 on Air is negligible even though it's $300 apart. i3 to i5 makes bigger difference for smaller difference in price.

The Air upgrades, as I recall, were dual core i3 to quad core i5 to quad core i7. The quad core i5 is obviously the best one for the price. Though the i7 is only $150 over that, which was only worth it to me for the quicker shipping.
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