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Comment by intruder | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand the general moan about the touch bar. These are exactly the cases I think will make the touch bar great.

Is it the most innovative concept ever? No, but it looks like it's been executed very well. I think developers will like this macbook.

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To what exact cases are you referring? Do you not use an ide with a test runner? What exactly is desirable about triggering and monitoring this from a second display on the keyboard--where you're looking all the time, naturally--over clicking a button on screen?

Take a good look at the IDE running there. It's Vim. I use that all the time, and so do many other people on HN.

Do you need a button like this on your keyboard? No, you could set up a new Vim bind. But this is more dynamic; what if the test re-run buttons were only visible after having modified a file, and replaced with a deploy or commit button if tests succeed?

If you're vigorously opposed to it, don't buy a Mac. But some people can definitely see use in it. It's like your function row, but with visibly context-aware functions.

The computer already has a fantastic dynamic display built in—the display. Your eyes even naturally fall there. Why do we need a second display at all, much less on the keyboard where people do not look?

Unless you're touch-typing your function keys, you certainly do look there.

I don't want a "second display"; I want dynamic, context-aware buttons. Focusing on the fact that it's "another display" misses all the benefits of it not being static hardware buttons.

> I want dynamic, context-aware buttons.

The buttons on your keyboard are already context aware. All this does is make them difficult/impossible to touch type (I touch type my F-keys), forces me to look away from my display to perform operations, and removes the good tactile feedback you get from a keypress.

"Context-aware" as in the applications you use will decide what to do with the inputs, I guess, sure. The applications you use being able to create their own inputs is an entirely different thing and what I meant by "context-aware".

I agree, though, that the lack of feedback was a mistake.

Would vim be fun/useful to use on an iPad? Because, I think that is what your argument really says...

>But this is more dynamic; what if the test re-run buttons were only visible after having modified a file, and replaced with a deploy or commit button if tests succeed?

More dynamic in that you have to look away from your work to trigger a re-run? Or more dynamic in that its completely worthless if you use an external display and external keyboard? Or more dynamic in that it's another avenue for show-stopping macOS bugs?

With PyCharm and most Jetbrains IDEs I can remap keys to run test. So pressing two or three keys will run tests AND!!! I don't have to look at my keyboard to run the tests NOR see the results.

… and you can continue to do that just fine.

Meanwhile, the other 90% of users will probably love it when their IDE, profiler, every browser's developer tools, etc. can display context-appropriate labels so they don't need to remember what F8 does in the current mode of the current application.

90% of users consistently and/or constantly look at and/or check their keyboards with the new touchbar. That sounds so AWESOME! Thumbs up! /s

The touch bar is a regression.

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