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I really don't understand why everybody seems to think the Escape key is so important. I almost never hit mine, and since the Touch Bar has a virtual escape key
by eridius 10y ago
I really don't understand why everybody seems to think the Escape key is so important. I almost never hit mine, and since the Touch Bar has a virtual escape key, I don't really see the problem. The best I can figure is everybody complaining is a Vim user, but if you're a Vim user I don't know why you haven't already replaced the cumbersome Escape key with something easier, like binding `jk`, or binding Caps Lock to Control and then using Control-[.
So can you explain why everybody is so upset that they don't have a physical Escape key?
- schwede 10y agoWhat about leaving fullscreen mode while playing video?
- azinman2 10y agoNot sure why you're downvoted. I am a vim user and the first thing I do is bind escape to caps lick on any new keyboard. Reaching for the escape key would be terrible for my RSI.
- kabdib 10y agoMuscle memory. Nearly 40 years of Emacs muscle memory. Sure, you can rebind it. But this starts to interrupt flow when you switch keyboards. ESC wasn't broken. They broke it. I'm done.
- nathanaldensr 10y agoYour argument consists of "people who don't work like I do are wrong" and you imply they should pay the price... for using a key that's been ubiquitous since the beginning of computing time.
- eridius 10y agoPay what price, though? That's the question I'm asking. What the heck are people using the Escape key for that's so important that they can't tolerate having to tap the Touch Bar instead of having a physical key? As for ubiquity, that doesn't mean anything. Just because we've had something for a long time doesn't mean we need to keep having it. For example, my current physical keyboard has no Insert key, but that's a key that keyboards had for a long time (my keyboard replaced that with the Eject key). And yet I didn't even notice its lack until I looked at my keyboard just now.
- francoisdevlin 10y agoSays the emacs user.
- eridius 10y agoI'm a Vim user. And as I implied in my original comment, I have `jk` bound to Escape, and if I'm ssh'd into a machine without my config, since I have Caps Lock bound to Control, it's still easier to hit Control-[ than it is to hit the Escape key.
- 010a 10y agoYou could say the same thing for removing serial ports, or floppy drives, or CD drives. People used them when Apple got rid of them. People whined. Apple still did it. We don't miss them anymore. Its possible Apple could go too far, but I don't think its fair to say Apple did anything wrong _yet_. They're always early on removing this stuff, but they've never been wrong. Literally never.
- falcolas 10y ago
- indspenceable 10y agoI use the keys on that row, and having physical keys gives me the useful tactile feedback that I've pressed a key. Sounds dumb, but it's real - it's the reason that keyboards are much better to type on than touchscreens.
- jacobr1 10y agoThey are releasing a new model with normal top row keys too.
- kabdib 10y ago... the model with the smaller screen. Not really a great option. And it doesn't address the lack of standard USB ports (for folks with YubiKeys, etc.), MagSafe, and the jury is out on the actual keyboard until I can type on it. I physically recoiled from the latest MacBook thin keyboard.
- pix64 10y agoEsc closes dialogs.
- eridius 10y agoIt doesn't have to be a physical key to do that. The Touch Bar still has a virtual Esc key.