I live in terminal about a third of my day. I seldom use the function keys for anything other than adjusting the volume and brightness. I can't remember the last time I needed to use a pure Function key in any app.

I am a keyboard junky. I have long used LaunchBar (since OS X Beta), Keyboard Maestro and other utilities to do almost everything on my computer and while keeping my hands on the home keys. And I mapped the CAPS LOCK to ESC many years ago.

For me the current Function Keys are mostly wasted space. I am not sure how useful the Touch Bar will be for me, but I feel it will be more useful than the current setup.

(corrected: keeping hands "on" home)

You don't remap the function keys to do stuff? I use F1 and F2 to switch between tabs in tmux for example. In the past I have also have mapped the function keys on the right side to run common scripts, like deploying an app staging/production.

I guess that it comes down to I have never liked the function keys because they pull my hands off of the home keys, and I never could accurately hit the F keys without looking for them.

Long ago, when I was using apps that made heavy use of the function keys, I mapped ctrl-alt plus a number for to the function keys. I use to love the Happy Hacker Keyboards for have this built in.

Do you never enter apps like htop? Even without function keys for filter and search you at least would need an esc key to quit.

I have esc remapped to capslock on my laptop, but how easy is it to remap keys in OSX?

You got me there. htop is probably the one terminal app that I regularly use that has important FN keys. Still I bet only one out of 5 times do I actually use the FN keys in htop. I suspect that of the amount that I use them, Apple's access to old function keys via the Touch Bar will be fine for me.

(And I can always pull out my Happy Hacker Keyboard)

Its very easy to remap keys in OSX. Its in the Keyboard Settings.

so the understanding here is that everyone is just going to remap esc?

Up until macOS 10.12, it was difficult to remap the ESC to CAP LOCK. Now it is an option in the keyboard settings.

My biggest complaint is since macOS Sierra, it is now so hard to create a Hyper-key.

http://brettterpstra.com/2016/09/29/a-better-hyper-key-hack-...

Esc quits htop on Mac OS? That's really odd. I've gotten used to Ctrl+C on Linux.

ctrl-c sends a SIGINT to the terminal, it's not a quit command. F10 is the original quit for htop along with F6 being sort, F3 being search, and so on

I understand, but it still has the effect of quitting.

workarounds exist sure, they aren't replacements for that app's workflow

q for quit in htop on ubuntu

Thanks for directing me to LaunchBar and Keyboard Maestro. I'm a touch typist, so for me the new touch bar is a no go. Regarding function keys, they are configurable. I'm a programmer: debugging using function keys is been part of my coding live since I can remember. I guess this MBP is not for me. Regarding the waste of space, I don't see that: there's plenty of space. The screen size mandates the amount of space available in the base of the laptop.

I understand Apple's rationale: touch bar = dynamic function keys but, why not keep the physical function and esc keys and add the touch bar on top of that?

As others have mentioned. I just remapped my function keys for common tasks or launching applications (e.g. f1 = Xcode, f2 = Slack, f3 = Terminal). Using something like Keyboard Maestro (which you use), you can also contextualize the functionality based on certain applications.

You are making the assumption that they care about sophisticated users, and I can't see any evidence that they have for quite a while.

Not only does apple not care about sophisticated, or "power" users, it's becoming more and more clear that there are not many sophisticated users within apple itself.

Let's take multiple monitor support as an example - something that vacillates between barely working and a dumpster fire, depending on the release of OSX. Aren't there people within apple that need three screens ? Aren't there power users within apple that demand this functionality ? We are left to conclude that zero, or almost zero, people inside of apple are using this kind of configuration[1] - otherwise there is no way it would be allowed this kind of dysfunction.

Some other things that we are forced to conclude nobody at apple does:

- use USB cellular modems/dongles

- tile windows to hide unnecessary desktop

- primarily mouse-free usage

- move files in the finder with 'cut'

- use the god damned escape key, for the love of christ

We all knew this was coming - the day that Apple "mac pro'd" the rest of the lineup. We got a sneak peak with the 12" macbook. Now the other shoe drops.

[1] For instance, this relatively boring use-case: three primary screens on a desktop and a large flat panel connected as a secondary display. Kind of sort of works in snow leopard. Various, random dysfunction in each release of OSX thereafter.

What's wrong with Apple's multi-monitor support? At least mixed-DPI configurations have worked fine on Mac for years, unlike with Windows.

Also: (1) USB tethering to an iPhone is just about the easiest cellular solution there is; (2) Google "Divvy"; (3) a big draw of the touchpad is that mousing doesn't take your hands that far off the keyboard; (4) real men and women use Terminal for file management.

1 external monitor: for me, it hard locks 10.10 regularly -- no core, nothing in console, just hard lock. This was on completely stock brand new macbook pros.

2 external monitors: even worse. I quit trying.

btw, I love divvy [1] (best $13 I've spent in years). For those who don't know, it allows keyboard chords to move windows. Unfortunately, it doesn't have good multi-monitor support -- it moves windows only within they monitor they are on. That said, it's crucial for good typists. A typical use case: code in one window, docs in another. Use the keyboard to increase the size of the docs window so you can read it better, then shrink it back and put it back into the lower right corner of your monitor. It's awesome.

[1] http://mizage.com/divvy/

For the hard lock issue, check to see if the cpu is grinding to 200%+ utilization, especially spending most of the cpu on the kernel_task process. If it is, see if [1] will help. The tl;dr of that page is when the Mac laptops sense a high temperature, the quick and dirty fix Apple has in place is push kernel_task to eat up as much cpu as possible to slow down everything else enough to cool down the laptop.

I pointed my room air conditioner's vent directly against the bottom of my Mac laptop, and it happily drives my external monitors. Enclosure Bottomside temperature reads 18-20 degrees C, and CPU A Temperature Diode reads 60 degrees C while I'm cooling my laptop like this.

I agree with the great-grandparent's sentiment that the product polish for high-end Apple laptop products is definitely gone. It isn't that no one within Apple is unaware of these issues, it is too few are in a position to take actionable measures about these issues. The margin between picking a MacBook Pro and a high-end Dell/HP/Lenovo/System76 is as slim to me as back during the latter stages of the PowerBook days, the last time I switched back to non-Apple laptops for a few years.

Product marketing-wise, Cook is in a tough position that I don't envy. Apple is so big right now that every product revision has to support that "big", "successful" narrative, and he's getting painted into a corner to not jeopardize that story. This pushes severe compromises into product design decisions to go after the bulk of that bigness, and niches like influencer demographics get squashed in the process.

[1] http://www.rdoxenham.com/?p=259&cpage=2

"What's wrong with Apple's multi-monitor support?"

One thing immediately comes to mind: configure a multiple (3 or 4) monitor setup (again, not exactly exotic) and then full screen a video in one of the monitors ... now change focus to a different window in a different physical screen. Fun ensues. Different fun, depending on OSX release.

USB or bluetooth tethering is great - I'd prefer to use that always - but some use-cases demand a physical thing stuck into the laptop and the plain old USB A-type is flexibility I don't like to see deprecated. I'll gladly take 1mm additional laptop thickness in order to retain those and I think the 11" macbook air, with one type-A on each side, is a pretty powerful swiss army knife.

I'm not sure why you indicate 3-4 monitors is not exactly exotic. Pretty sure its the 1% or less. Wouldn't that be the definition of exotic?

Wait'll you see what happens when you rotate them!

We are living in a bubble, our use case is not even remotely close to the average or above average use case. Looking at the data broadly, this barely registers as a 'thing'.

Spoken as a multi monitor user too.

Is this including the mac itself (so 2 external screens)? Because I have that setup at work with a mid-2014 Macbook Pro and with the last 3 versions of OS X and everything works fine - video fullscreen while browsing on another screen is not a problem.

> move files in the finder with 'cut'

You can actually do this. Cmd + C to copy the file, then Cmd + Option + V to paste it and delete the original.

You know what's better for 'move a file' than 'normal shortcut for copying something + brand new unique shortcut for paste-and-delete-original'? Cut and Paste. Using the same shortcuts as every other piece of software. Why, on earth, can't we just have that?

"Cut" and "paste" is a bad abstraction for moving a file. When you "cut" text and then don't "paste" it's the same as deleting the text. You don't want that for files (it would be too easy to accidentally delete the file). In fact, Windows doesn't work that way--if you fail to paste, the original file will remain in its original location.

Apple's abstraction is more honest to what is actually happening.

That's purity getting in the way of practicality. Non-destructive cut with text isn't unfamiliar to anyone who has used a spreadsheet, so use that abstraction with files(like windows does).

Why is accidentally deleting a file worse than accidentally deleting text? Some files, sure, but there should be safeguards about deleting those files anyway. Plus backups, always backups.

In truth, I don't think many people are accidentally hitting that shortcut that often. And, if they are, so long as there's an action analogous to undo'ing a textual cut/copy/paste, it shouldn't be a problem.

seems to me Apple's implementation is just lazy...

sent from my macbook

Courage.

> multiple monitor support vacillates between barely working and a dumpster fire

This. Earlier this month, I tweeted that "I threw out my hardware RNG, since #macOS's window placement behavior turned out to produce better randomness."

vim users (and I am one!) ^[ strictly dominates escape: it doesn't force you to move your left hand up or rotate at the wrist. Does emacs use escape? What else does?

Also, remap that fat caps lock key to control.

I really hate using esc in its default position so I always map caps lock to esc. Mapping caps lock to ctrl seems so much more useful; I had no idea ^[ is the same thing.

> strictly dominates escape

For some I suppose. Many of us like using escape :)

I agree. For the first time in many years I'm going to be going back to Microsoft for my computers. The surface book seemed to expensive but then I realized that 1 surface book takes the role of a macbook pro + ipad pro.

I'm not going back to microsoft - I'm just going to buy a spare 11" macbook air and move sideways to that when this one wears out.

Previous all-aluminum macbook airs have lasted me 6 years, so I have a long ways to go before needing to switch ...

Except you cannot detach the screen for the main computer. So not exactly like the iPad pro. (not trying to defend Apple).

>You are making the assumption that they care about sophisticated users

You are making the assumption that your workloads are what define "sophisticated users".

I don't think a professional videographer or a photographer (both of which I do, and am very excited about extra on-demand functionality that the strip brings, for which many fork $300 and $1000 for dedicated external control strips and surfaces) is less "sophisticated" than some code churner that has a typing-heavy workload and doesn't have a use for taking his hands off the home row.

That said, I wont be using it much when programming either. But for Photoshop, Cubase and such? Shut up and take my money!

You seem to have conflated sophistication with fear of change. The history of technology shows this fear is misplaced. If the interface provided is compelling, most people will adapt. Some will long for the old ways to be the only ways, but that's never been a segment of desire that gets much attention for what I assume are obvious reasons.

You seem to have conflated fear of change with desire not to have useful functionality removed and replaced with functionality that might prove useful.

The touch strip is cool, but it suddenly means looking down at the keyboard to use it, and the loss of the tactile sensation of the keys. Maybe it's a net gain for some people. For me, it's at best 2 steps forward, 1 step back. It's a mixed blessing.

It doesn't really rebut me to twist up a bunch of semantics to make it seem like something is being taken away from you by the fact that Apple is making a product you don't like.

I'm just saying that it's a change that I dislike on an emotional level, and that I believe that needing to look at my computers controls to use them will lead to a permanent net decrease in comfort using the machine.

They're making a product that I don't like, and that's not a new phenomenon. Categorically, I dislike things that seem like change for the sake of change, and I dislike things that feel like a company herding my behavior in the direction they want me to go.

On the other hand, I like progress. In my opinion, features like this are certainly change, but I doubt that they're progress. That is, I think that it both adds and removes features. Fear of change isn't a bad thing, in and of itself. I think the point that we disagree on the strongest is whether Apple's new hardware represents actual progress, or merely change.

Not wanting to divert attention from the screen during engaged work has nothing to do with fear of change.

Sure it does. People don't want to change their habits because of a hypothesized productive decline that is, by the necessity of not having tried the change, based solely on emotion. Call the emotion whatever you want if "fear" makes you feel too silly.

> You seem to have conflated sophistication with fear of change. The history of technology shows this fear is misplaced. If the interface provided is compelling, most people will adapt.

You're typing this on a keyboard layout designed to avoid jams on typewriters.

Except this would be un-adaptable. Looking away from a screen that has no physical feedback to alert the user where the fingers are will cause issues.

I don't know a single person who can actually type on a smart phone without looking and nearly zero mistakes.

Seems they catering to the emoji, Siri users. I want a Mac I can write on with a longer battery life. Surface Book is looking good right now.

Touch typists and sophisticated users are distinct, but overlapping, sets of users.

Yeah, I thought the same thing (specially since 95% of the time I'm using my laptop, I actually have it closed, hooked up to a screen and with external keyboard and mouse). But I guess this will be useful for most casual users, since they often look down to their keyboards (and to be honest, the keyboard and the screen aren't that far apart in a laptop) and who don't usually use/know hotkeys for common actions they perform, and which now they'll have access to through the touch bar. But for most developers, yeah this seems like a gimmick. And yes, Touch ID is sweet. That 3 second payment demo was great.

> But I guess this will be useful for most casual users, since they often look down to their keyboards

Which is weird it's a feature exclusively on their "Pro" line of laptops.

Well, there are many kinds of "professionals".

Designers, photographers or people working with audio/video production don't really need touch-typing.

And those are arguably the kind of "Pro" users Apple is targeting, not coders.

And those are almost all people who don't use a 13-15" screen for their work whenever they can help it. Which makes the touch bar useless.

> since 95% of the time I'm using my laptop, I actually have it closed, hooked up to a screen and with external keyboard and mouse

I can't believe they put a radio in my car since 95% of the time I just leave it in my driveway and take the bus.

>A flat, digital screen containing changing buttons does not cater well to touch typists

Well, it's obviously NOT meant for touch typing workloads! This is not something to compete with Ctr-A-Alt-J-K-B of Emacs, or ^{"4j of Vim, or for writers to use.

It's for professional apps with lots of special dials, sliders, etc -- stuff useful from the creative industry (DAWs, NLEs, etc) to use cases such as medical equipment controls, etc (another industry that uses some special control surfaces and stuff).

The touchbar is close to the screen though. Is it really looking down much more than just looking at the bottom of the screen?

Not to mention I work a lot of the time with my macbook closed connected to external display. What good is touchbar then? Oh wait, my external display is Thunderbolt display, now a $1k paperweight because I bought into the Apple closed ecosystem.

> I hardly ever look down at my keyboard

I was thinking the same - If i need extra controls for my app then the app provides them and use my trackpad with my eyes fixed on my screen, like this isn't hard. Seems gadgetry for gadgets sake, disappointing.

If I'm paying hundreds of dollars extra for this to, which seems to be the case, then I think I'll pass unfortunately.

I touch type, I hardly ever look down at my keyboard ... except for stuff like switching the volume off, brightness, or the rare key combo that uses a function key.

So there is gradient even in non-casual users. I would have cried with you if my OS was Windows.