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Comment by trurl | Hacker News Reader

I really think too many people are making a big deal of the TouchBar. I'm a vim user, and when the first rumors of it surfaced earlier this year I switched ESC to capslock and after a day or so adapted just fine.

I don't know that I really need any of the things TouchBar offers, but it seems to be unreasonably vilified without no one actually using it.

For me the key issue is the performance, which no amount of key remapping can solve.

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I'm just wondering how one will install certain OSes if the Func keys aren't usable during OS install in Boot Camp. I don't remember being able to remap an installer hotkeys easily. Maybe Apple doesn't want that demographic, or perhaps we'll have to connect a USB-C keyboard.

Boot Camp drivers are also terribly out of date.

Boot Camp has already been addressed though. The function keys will be shown and since Touch Bar is running WatchOS it should be easily possible to show them without drivers.

I read that there is an independent ARM processor controlling TouchBar. Is there solid proof the TouchBar reverts to Func keys when no OS has initialized/rendered keys to the TouchBar?

Federighi has already confirmed it.

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/28/using-touch-bar-with-boo...

I was looking at that article as well. I read that as confirming how the Touch Bar will work under Windows in Boot Camp. GP is asking a different question: how will the Touch Bar work for non-Windows OSes, in particular during the boot or OS initialization process itself?

At this point I'm starting to assume that people are acting in bad faith when they pretend that the toolbar somehow turns to emoji mode when you're working in a terminal or rebooting or whatever.

I do this because all of Apple's material has focused on it's context-sensitivity and configurability. Here's a screenshot of function keys: http://images.apple.com/v/macbook-pro/j/images/overview/touc...

No, my point is Apple is pushing consumer's uses such as typing emoji above the developer's needs, such as pressing ESC. Yes, you certainly still can "press" ESC, but I suspect I won't be used to the touching a screen sensation when reaching for the ESC key without looking at my key plate. I'm very aware of the contextual TouchBar.

Yes, I'm sure the Touch Bar will useful for the consumer demographic. However, there are many of us who are much more effective with the keyboard rather than using a touchscreen or a mouse.

Here's an idea of how it could be incredibly useful for the l33d professionals: https://twitter.com/VilleImmonen/status/792840677021351936/p...

It's nice to see some ideas being played with but I think there are two issues with that image.

1. The Esc key isn't butted against the edge of the touch bar. Because it's not always in the same place means it's hard to press without looking down.

2. The same is true for the run tests shortcuts. I'll miss the f keys less than Esc but things like test shortcuts, I find, are best committed to muscle memory.

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