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Comment by Joky | Hacker News Reader

I'm not an expert in keyboard, I'm just a software developer that spends a bunch of time in front of a computer: I had some adjustment period to the new keyboard but now I'm used to it and it feels perfectly fine.

What is the problem with "touch-typists" and the new keyboard? Is the layout different in such a way that confuses you? Is it the lack of feedback from the touchbar?

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If you're a vim user the touch bar mbp is pretty much a no-go. Most users just map capslock to escape and they're mostly okay, but if you're like me and like to map capslock to delete, then having to press escape on the touchbar just doesn't work. (i've tried to map some other key to escape, but haven't found anything that feels natural)

I am a regular vim user (every day) and I really just got used to using ESC on the touchbar. It’s not a big deal.

Mis-taps on the touchbar are my main annoyance.

Have you tried mapping caps lock to escape?

Yeah. But I found it didn’t make sense to me, my muscle memory is for my pinky to reach up. Hitting a flat surface was less weird than hitting caps lock.

I have a 2016 touchbar MacBook Pro. I’ve been learning vim, but I agree using escape is hard with the touchbar. I ended up mapping “jj” to escape. Seems to work well and keeps my fingers on the home row.

I have remapped Caps Lock to Ctrl and Escape to Ctrl + ].

US users can map caps lock to esc an be fine with it, but pretty much the rest of the world uses more characters than english does. Many people use caps lock as a switch to the local keyboard layout. This way you can get the best of both worlds.

You know Ctrl + [ is bound to escape doesn't even re-bind. I use a Thinkpad but I won't reach all the way for escape. Ctrl + [ is way easier.

I’m a heavy vim user and have not had an issue hitting the escape key past the first couple days as long as I don’t look down.

The keys don't have enough tactile feedback. That tricks (my) brain into hitting the keys harder because they instill less confidence. That's exhausting when typing for a few hours.

The ESC key issue isn't as bad - I have 'jk' remapped to ESC anyways. But the lack of feedback with the butterfly keys makes my hands feel like I'm setting myself up for repetitive stress injury.

The keyboard is just awful. Can anyone honestly say that they prefer the feel of the butterfly keys?

Yes. Typing for a whole day on my 2013 MBP would give serious wrist pains. This is not the case on my 2016 MBP.

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