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Comment by threeseed | Hacker News Reader

I actually really liked Apple's iPad Pro keyboard.

It's a heck of a lot better than the MacBook Pro one which really has to be Apple's worst technological innovation in the last 20 years.

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This is so crazy to me because I love the MacBook Pro keyboard (assuming you mean the one on with the Touch Bar). I know it's personal opinion and there are tons of people that don't like it but I seriously have no issues with it and feel like typing on it is just a joy. It's best keyboard (save for my mechanical Ducky) that I've typed on. It's definitely my favorite laptop keyboard, even more so than my 2011 MBP and 2013 MBP.

It was a little odd to start but I've also really grown to like it, and now find typing on the old one strangely clunky. The smaller travel of the keys and the reduced key height actually helps me type a lot faster.

I think some people are never going to feel right typing with a "thin laptop" range of key travel. I can deal with it, but it still feels weird.

Agreed. Have learned to love the very short travel keyboard of my Touch Bar MacBook Pro. I note that my typing is more effortless now somehow.

The new mac book pro keyboards are really good to type on, satisfying and fast. Problem is, some keys stop working properly after a while (lookup the classic b key - stuff gets jammed in it!)

But I would still call the new MBP Apple's worst keyboard because, the arrows are totally useless. If you type emails all day -> great. If you're a developer -> rubbish (yayaya I don't do VIM).

Your fault for not using vim :)

If you did use vim, and had the touchbar, it would still suck because the esc key isn't a real key anymore.

If only you remapped Capslock to Esc like 80% of the vim developers out there...

Toggling the capslock LED by using capslock as esc would annoy the heck out of me.

The caps lock LED stops toggling after remapping it to escape on a mac.

I might try that, then.

Apple added a built-in option to map the caps lock key to escape. This not only makes sense from a RSI and efficiency perspective but is also closer to the keyboard that vi was originally designed for (the escape key was where modern PC keyboards put the tab).

A lot of dedicated vimers will use ctrl-[ instead of escape to avoid the inanity of reaching up there regardless of their keyboard, which is also a good approach if you're in the camp that maps caps lock to ctrl.

http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Avoid_the_escape_key

I'm not a heavy vim user, but this is THE reason I was afraid of the touch bar. It turned out not to be an issue. I honestly don't think even heavy users would have much of an issue.

My only problem with the touch bar now is that it has crapped out on me more than once requiring a restart.

Everyone knows real vimmers map CAPS LOCK to esc.

Maybe this whole thing was just a big troll by the Apple engineers to coax more people into doing it "the right way" ;)

It's sort of like the nerdier version of the Jobsian "you're holding it wrong".

Its replaceable as well if your macbook pro keyboard flakes out you're in a world of hurt.

No doubt, since it cannot be fixed at the store, but they don’t tell you that until your already at the appointment. Sending something in because of a broken key is just poor design especially for a company that touts being environmentally friendly.

My touch bar 15” MBP keyboard was replaced on site (took about 2 hours) at the Portland, OR Apple Store.

You seem to be getting downvoted here. I agree with you: the Smart Keyboard is fantastic to type on, imo. And it’s impervious to spills and crumbs.

My biggest beef with Apple laptops is how tiny the return key is on European keyboards.

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