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Ask HN: Has the Touch Bar improved your productivity as a developer?

12 points by jjallen ↗ HN
I'm getting a new MacBook soon, and don't want to pay much extra for the Touch Bar, but would consider doing so if there were commands/apps that improve developer productivity.

I use vim and a full-fledged JS IDE for development (not sure if it has special Touch Bar commands but will look).

12 comments

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nicolasd
For VIM: I am using CAPS Lock now as ESC key, because there is no physical ESC Key with the touch bar anymore.

Generally: I configured my touch bar to match the old keyboard function keys layout & they never change, no matter if I switch the program. I just don't want to change my behaviour + can't deal with the fact that I can't quickly change volume/brightness + hit play/pause/forward/backwards keys.

seanwilson
> can't deal with the fact that I can't quickly change volume/brightness + hit play/pause/forward/backwards keys.

Do you find this a deal breaker? I use a MacBook and not being able to get a new model without a touch bar is holding me back from upgrading.

mranon99
This annoys me so much, at least provide the option to make certain buttons globally accessible regardless of the applications context.
w4tson
There is a way to do this. It took me a bit of googling but it is possible. I needed the function keys or IntelliJ would be rendered useless
jjallen
Hmm, yeah, I use volume and brightness constantly, so this is not great for me. Might try and get a refurbished with old ports, without the touch bar
rajathagasthya
You can set the touch bar to show "Expanded control strip" in Settings -> Keyboard -> Touch Bar Shows so you get the same layout as the physical keys.
nicolasd
Isn't a dealbreaker if you use it like I do and set a global touch bar configuration, which doesn't change. Only useful feature of the touchbar is Touch ID (which works very well). However, regarding your question about productivity: no it doesn't increase nor decrease with the touchbar (especially if you can work with caps lock being the ESC key in vim).
itamarst
A few more buttons or a little more screen space won't make you more productive.

The way to be more productive is to work on figuring out underlying problems, coming up with better solutions, using languages or frameworks that automate away repetition (e.g. garbage collection vs. manual memory management).

The ROI on the Touch Bar is probably negative to miniscule. Better to spend that money on a good book that will teach you some useful skills. More on productivity here: https://codewithoutrules.com/2016/08/25/the-01x-programmer/

mikaelf
I got a Macbook with the Touch Bar, mostly for the Touch ID. It's super convenient!
mranon99
It has not increased productivity as a developer at all, if anything it has slightly reduced it because sometimes I'm unsure if I managed to hit the ESC key or not. The most frequent buttons I use on it are volume control and screen-saver. Everything else is a wasted space. The one major issue I have with it is that it provides no physical feedback as compared with physical keys, perhaps if it had haptic feedback I would dislike it slightly less.
jjallen
I can see how having to look at the esc key all the time could slow one down. That said, I think I look at all of the other keys -- actually maybe not volume up -- since it's so close to pwr
swah
A MBP with touch bar costs 1/3 of a new car in my country. We need the high taxes to protect the national consumer electronics industry.