Path: csiph.com!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Jolly Roger Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system Subject: Re: New Mac Keyboard with Touchbar? Date: 30 Oct 2016 20:08:28 GMT Organization: People for the Ethical Treatment of Pirates Lines: 36 Message-ID: References: <1mvvjae.gd6s9g18ejs0oN%nmassello@yahoo.com> <6IadnYkzx_ArWonFnZ2dnUU7-T-dnZ2d@giganews.com> <1mvw3gm.u7l0d31pdg2rjN%nmassello@yahoo.com> X-Trace: individual.net Y4DdQr6nk2ajAl9oq8wztguhG2nkSwXTR9MEI057roktkyocXK Cancel-Lock: sha1:ZFFHOBklLl4rRiYqenzg0wosbQ8= Mail-Copies-To: nobody User-Agent: slrn/1.0.1 (Darwin) Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.system:96217 On 2016-10-29, Neill Massello wrote: > Alan Browne wrote: > >> I don't use the F keys all that much in the first place. > > The touch bar does improve the fn keys by removing the need to remember > which key does what in which application. (Way back when, apps like > WordPerfect shipped with long cards that fit around the function key row > on the old "Saratoga" keyboards.) But there's still a location problem. > For commonly used commands, I suspect that it will still be easier to > use standard keys with modifiers than to use the touch bar. And it won't > be that much harder to roll your own key combos than to customize the > touch bar. For the less commonly used commands, menus, palettes, or > "button bars" will suffice, as they have for years. Yep. It's definitely an improvement over static function keys. > The one thing that the touch bar adds, rather than improving an existing > function, is multi-touch controls. As the Photoshop demo showed, being > able to manipulate two variables simultaneously could be a big deal for > some users. For others, the touch bar will be more useful than the old > fn keys, but not such a big deal -- a nice feature that the MB Pro comes > with, but not a reason to rush out and buy one. Don't forget it also adds Touch ID support. > The more interesting question: is this the first step in a long Apple > geek toward a Mac with a full touchscreen? Time will tell. -- E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter. I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead. JR