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How does a programmer evaluate this machine without discussing at least one of vi and emacs, and the absence of real Esc and Fn keys? By the way, I visited an
by geophile 10y ago
How does a programmer evaluate this machine without discussing at least one of vi and emacs, and the absence of real Esc and Fn keys?
By the way, I visited an Apple store and played with the new 15" MBP. It's even worse than I thought. I downloaded the latest Gnu Emacs, and the Fn virtual keys were not available. And in no case did I see the Esc and Fn virtual keys present at the same time.
Also ridiculous is the fact that the touch bar is not available on any keyboard other than the built-in MBP keyboard. So you now have to choose between the features of the touch bar and the comfort of external peripherals.
It is astonishing how many bad decisions were packed into this one revision of a formerly great machine.
- whorleater 10y ago>If you need access to function keys (F1–F12), hold down the Function (fn) key at the bottom-left of your keyboard. Touch Bar changes to show the function buttons for you to select, and then it returns to its previous state when you release the Function key. From https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204436 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204436.
- an_account 10y agoWhich is exactly how it works by default on old MacBook pros, since almost all the function keys were overwritten to control functions by default.
- geophile 10y agoI have my MBP (with real function keys) set up to not require than I press the Fn key to operate them. Pressing Fn to access the function key is an undesirable workaround.
- Obi_Juan_Kenobi 10y agoCan you not do that with the new macbook? I figured you'd be able to do this context-dependent, so that they'd be function keys for relevant programs.
- whorleater 10y agoYou definitely can, geophile is just being obtuse. >For some apps, you can make the function keys display permanently in Touch Bar: In System Preferences, choose Keyboard. Click Shortcuts. From the left sidebar, select Function Keys. Click the “+” symbol, then navigate to the app and select it. From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207240 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207240 If you want always function keys, you can do that too: >If you prefer the top row of keys to always behave as standard function keys without holding the Fn key: Choose System Preferences from the Apple menu. Click Keyboard. Click the Keyboard tab if it's not already highlighted. Select "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" From: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204436 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204436
- geophile 10y agoI actually looked through System Preferences. I did not see a new Touch Bar option, and it didn't occur to me that a non-keyboard device would be configured under Keyboard. My bad. While this does improve things, I would still rather have real keys. Tactile feedback is a thing.
- nodamage 10y agoNote: the second link only applies to non-Touch Bar devices.
- pjmlp 10y agoNot every programmer cares about vi and emacs.
- enraged_camel 10y ago>>How does a programmer evaluate this machine without discussing at least one of vi and emacs, and the absence of real Esc and Fn keys? What percentage of programmers use vi or emacs?
- drawkbox 10y agoUse or say they use? vi and emacs are alot like some programming books people say they have read to show they are a programmer because they think that it what it means. My guess, < 10% with all the IDEs and text editors out there today. On servers or VMs they are common, in actually coding, probably overstated.
- nol13 10y agoAdmit I use nano whenever editing through ssh, fake escape key was still the first thought through my mind when I saw that though. They at least have a little braille bump where escape is supposed to be? (if not new accessory opportunity? can i get a design patent on that?)
- ardaozkal 10y agoMy laptop's top left corner of keyboard recently stopped working (new one shipped), and well, I've only then realized how much I use vim. I don't use it for programming, but well, it's the text editor I use the most for config files. I had to install a virtual keyboard (onboard) just to be able to press esc. So, while no esc isn't be a reason to not buy the new mbp for me (price, lack of magsafe and the dongle madness are the reasons I don't buy, though), it is still be very, very annoying.
- x0x0 10y agointellij has a vi mode that doesn't suck
- anonbanker 10y agoMac users are poseurs, got it.
- threeseed 10y ago
- mcphage 10y agoDid you not read the article? That was addressed directly.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]