Cool!. Does anybody know if there's a generic tool for using a smartphone in a similar way as the Mac TouchBar? I know there are some apps to create a virtual keyboards, but those are very limited.
Wow, "Courage"... I guess we all have to deal with cognitive dissonance sometimes... Developers complaining about MBP, then diving into the touch bar APIs is basically the same as the old fable about the fox complaining the grapes are too sour, only to eat them afterwards.
lol is anyone really gonna use vim with the touchbar's escape key? Reaching up there with a physical keyboard is bad enough that I always remap caps lock to emit escape on tap (and control on hold). I can't imagine any vim power user being attracted to this new touch bar thing. In fact this MBPro release was the tipping point for me switching away from using a Mac to using Linux on a Thinkpad (and I will never go back).
This is an argument that the TouchBar should not be considered a deterrent for vim users since they shouldn't reach up to that row in the first place.
Also, this seems to be a generic complaint about the TouchBar as a feature of MacBooks Pro, which has been discussed at great length in threads about the feature, and not relevant to this post, which is about adding TouchBar support to React Native apps.
I learned in a previous HN thread that the use of Esc originated with the ADM-3A [1] keyboard layout. It was next to Q where modern keyboards have the Tab key. In that context it makes sense to use, but yeah, Esc is not in a good place today.
Just me, or is it pretty silly to have the "STAY ON THE HOME ROW!" HJKL cursor keys, and then be reaching way out with your pinky all the time? Had people been frequently remapping it to caps before these MBPs came along, or did everyone just suck it up and assume it belongs there because reasons?
I have a similar experience with AutoCAD where "mash esc repeatedly" means "get out of whatever I was doing," and I do it all the time. But AutoCAD's UI isn't designed to keep your fingers on the home row; it's a weird half-and-half mix of CLI and GUI where your hands will have to move no matter what you do. The inconsistency of whacking the corner with what I know of the rest of vi(m)'s design is what I find weird.
But like I said, not a vim user, so I'm grasping at straws here.
I and most everybody I know use caps lock remapped to Escape. It gets rid of the annoying caps lock key, is easier to press, and solves the missing escape key problem!
No, swap caps lock and control, it's much more useful.
Actually, maybe not that useful on a mac, but still more useful than the esc key. I've remapped esc to jj in vim, and it works beautifully (I very rarely actually need to type jj, so it works well).
I've used vim on and off for about 15 years now. I now use Emacs + evil or any other editor with vim key bindings. I've never remapped the ESC key.
Do you all remap the key at the OS level or do you remap it in your .vimrc? Getting rid of caps lock is attractive enough that I'm willing to give it a try. I never knew it was a thing and that that many people remapped ESC.
I'm also wondering what happens to the caps lock green light on the Macbook. Does it stay off since caps lock is never actually enabled?
I might. Otherwise I'll remap Caps lock to Esc, or use the other shortcut.
And for me, the touch bar is one of the coolest things I've seen on a laptop in a long time. It has a huge potential, and is going to be much more useful to me than those keys were, as I never really used them.
I use vim for quick edits only, when I'm on a shell doing some config or authoring a commit etc. Esc felt weird for a day or so then my hand just adopted to the touch esc key, not that bad. Might be a lot harder for a hardcore user though.
