This is subjective; I don't agree, I need tactile feedback so the ESC key is no more. Like many others, I have disabled the magic bar as much as I could because it occasionally got triggered if I just glanced a finger off of it accidentally.

As an emacs user, I do the following on this box:

[CAPSLOCK] -> CTRL [LEFT CTRL] -> ESC (just like an old HP 9000 workstation keyboard lol)

The above works for me.

While the keyboard is bad on this $4000 laptop; I do love the performance, battery life, and the screen. I would never buy another one though. I suspect I will be on my 2nd key replacement any day now.

stop making excuses for Apple's dumb decisions. With physical buttons I can find a key by feel just by running my fingers across the top row. Good luck accurately hitting any button on that stupid little touch screen.

> stop making excuses for Apple's dumb decisions.

This breaks the HN guidelines by being uncivil as well as uncharitable in the sense requested here: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."

Your comment would be fine without that first bit. Would you mind reading https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and following the guidelines when commenting here?

still it adds that small something to the comment. we humans adapt to things, we try to make excuses for our (and our friend's) errors. we try to come up with solutions.

that unpolite remark underlines the issue pretty well: one one side there is a solution, on the other side there is a poor implemented idea

Sure, but the unpoliteness was gratuitous and damages the container. You can drive to an interesting place without scratching the car.

The touch bar finally forced me to remap Caps Lock to Escape. It's much easier to hit on my computer (just don't ask me to use yours).

Personally I map caps to control because it makes all my text navigation easier (ctrl + a, ctrl + e, ctrl + shift + enter, etc).

Plus side: less RSI-feelings in my left wrist. Down side: muscle memory makes you look incompetent on other machines.

The Escape key is always in the same position (top left).

I always hit it with 100% accuracy just like I did on my previous MacBook.

And I am not making excuses for Apple. I think they should've made Escape key in particular a physical key.

Or, you know, use the keyboard layout that everyone has become accustomed to, instead of coming up with a special-snowflake input device that is a gimmick.

These new Macbooks are the Wii U's of laptops.

No right now in the top left corner of my touchbar is an (X) key, the esc key is to the right of it.

My understanding is that even though by default there is some (inexplicable) space left of the escape key on the touchbar, that space still functions as the escape key.

In my case I actually had a completely separate, non-esc button to the left of esc. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/InvBvqa.png

I'm not sure exactly when it happens, but I think it happens when you have some background context open on the touchbar (like some app's music controls). The X dismisses the bar you have open and then you get esc back. Often there's no esc at all and just the X.

That sounds terrible. Dismiss the window before you can escape??