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Comment by yeasayer | Hacker News Reader

I don't like that file operations are controlled by F1-F8 keys. This UX is unfriendly to macOS environment. Most users' F-row is in media keys mode by default, so you have to hold Fn otherwise. And I'm not even taking into account the Touch Bar.

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Marta author here.

The default key binding set is a de facto standard for double-pane file managers. I personally used Total Commander for a long time until I switched to Mac, and I really missed a FM with the similar hotkeys.

But I understand now that it's not what all Mac users expect from a file manager. I'll make an option to choose the hotkeys on the first launch [1].

As about the Touch Bar, Marta supports it since 0.1.2.

[1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/30...

> And I'm not even taking into account the Touch Bar.

Yep: the app provides touch bar buttons for many operations

I use https://github.com/Pyroh/Fluor to change whether the function keys or the media keys show up based on the application in the foreground.

It works quite well for me.

You can use software like Karabiner to change the default behavior of F keys for specific apps. In my case, function keys behave as F1-F10 in Terminal, Virtualbox, Pycharm and Dosbox, for example.

Not sure about the touch bar though.

It's not really unfriendly for developers though, who I would expect make up a decent proportion of the intended audience, and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set.

As for the Touch Bar, yes, that's a problem with the standard keybindings (and is also why I'll probably only be a macOS/Marta user for a few months, as I'll never buy a laptop with a fake keyboard).

But settings to the rescue! Cmd-shift-p & 'open default keybindings' reveals that they're all configurable.

> and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set.

I develop for several different platforms on macOS, and have never felt the need to enable that setting, because I've never encountered any macOS software that required the Fn keys in this particular non-idiomatic way. Even macOS IDEs stay away, tending to map things to complex key-chords instead.

IntelliJ.

It takes quite a bit of tweaking to get JetBrains IDEs to work like other macOS applications. Even AppCode has some issues there.

I guess it's a matter of taste whether you converge your familiar environment around the OS or your primary tools. I tend to do the latter (keeping IntelliJ, emacs, Chrome & shell use more-or-less consistent across platforms). I have more faith in my ongoing relationship with those tools than with a particular OS.

> and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set.

Why? As a heavy emacs and Xcode user at least, I rarely need a function key, and prefer the convenience of the media keys.

It's just been my experience with developers with macs. No big deal either way.

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