4 ms·

I don't understand the general moan about the touch bar. These are exactly the cases I think will make the touch bar great. Is it the most innovative concept e

I don't understand the general moan about the touch bar. These are exactly the cases I think will make the touch bar great. Is it the most innovative concept ever? No, but it looks like it's been executed very well. I think developers will like this macbook.

monkmartinez 10y ago
With PyCharm and most Jetbrains IDEs I can remap keys to run test. So pressing two or three keys will run tests AND!!! I don't have to look at my keyboard to run the tests NOR see the results.
- acdha 10y ago
  … and you can continue to do that just fine. Meanwhile, the other 90% of users will probably love it when their IDE, profiler, every browser's developer tools, etc. can display context-appropriate labels so they don't need to remember what F8 does in the current mode of the current application.
  - monkmartinez 10y ago
    90% of users consistently and/or constantly look at and/or check their keyboards with the new touchbar. That sounds so AWESOME! Thumbs up! /s The touch bar is a regression.
duaneb 10y ago
To what exact cases are you referring? Do you not use an ide with a test runner? What exactly is desirable about triggering and monitoring this from a second display on the keyboard--where you're looking all the time, naturally--over clicking a button on screen?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- striking 10y ago
  Take a good look at the IDE running there. It's Vim. I use that all the time, and so do many other people on HN. Do you need a button like this on your keyboard? No, you could set up a new Vim bind. But this is more dynamic; what if the test re-run buttons were only visible after having modified a file, and replaced with a deploy or commit button if tests succeed? If you're vigorously opposed to it, don't buy a Mac. But some people can definitely see use in it. It's like your function row, but with visibly context-aware functions.
  - duaneb 10y ago
    The computer already has a fantastic dynamic display built in—the display. Your eyes even naturally fall there. Why do we need a second display at all, much less on the keyboard where people do not look?
    - tkxxx7 10y ago
      Unless you're touch-typing your function keys, you certainly do look there. I don't want a "second display"; I want dynamic, context-aware buttons. Focusing on the fact that it's "another display" misses all the benefits of it not being static hardware buttons.
      - tomtheelder 10y ago
        > I want dynamic, context-aware buttons. The buttons on your keyboard are already context aware. All this does is make them difficult/impossible to touch type (I touch type my F-keys), forces me to look away from my display to perform operations, and removes the good tactile feedback you get from a keypress.
        tkxxx7 10y ago
        "Context-aware" as in the applications you use will decide what to do with the inputs, I guess, sure. The applications you use being able to create their own inputs is an entirely different thing and what I meant by "context-aware". I agree, though, that the lack of feedback was a mistake.

monkmartinez 10y ago

With PyCharm and most Jetbrains IDEs I can remap keys to run test. So pressing two or three keys will run tests AND!!! I don't have to look at my keyboard to run the tests NOR see the results.

acdha 10y ago
… and you can continue to do that just fine. Meanwhile, the other 90% of users will probably love it when their IDE, profiler, every browser's developer tools, etc. can display context-appropriate labels so they don't need to remember what F8 does in the current mode of the current application.
- monkmartinez 10y ago
  90% of users consistently and/or constantly look at and/or check their keyboards with the new touchbar. That sounds so AWESOME! Thumbs up! /s The touch bar is a regression.

duaneb 10y ago

To what exact cases are you referring? Do you not use an ide with a test runner? What exactly is desirable about triggering and monitoring this from a second display on the keyboard--where you're looking all the time, naturally--over clicking a button on screen?

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
striking 10y ago
Take a good look at the IDE running there. It's Vim. I use that all the time, and so do many other people on HN. Do you need a button like this on your keyboard? No, you could set up a new Vim bind. But this is more dynamic; what if the test re-run buttons were only visible after having modified a file, and replaced with a deploy or commit button if tests succeed? If you're vigorously opposed to it, don't buy a Mac. But some people can definitely see use in it. It's like your function row, but with visibly context-aware functions.
- duaneb 10y ago
  The computer already has a fantastic dynamic display built in—the display. Your eyes even naturally fall there. Why do we need a second display at all, much less on the keyboard where people do not look?
  - tkxxx7 10y ago
    Unless you're touch-typing your function keys, you certainly do look there. I don't want a "second display"; I want dynamic, context-aware buttons. Focusing on the fact that it's "another display" misses all the benefits of it not being static hardware buttons.
    - tomtheelder 10y ago
      > I want dynamic, context-aware buttons. The buttons on your keyboard are already context aware. All this does is make them difficult/impossible to touch type (I touch type my F-keys), forces me to look away from my display to perform operations, and removes the good tactile feedback you get from a keypress.
      - tkxxx7 10y ago
        "Context-aware" as in the applications you use will decide what to do with the inputs, I guess, sure. The applications you use being able to create their own inputs is an entirely different thing and what I meant by "context-aware". I agree, though, that the lack of feedback was a mistake.