[MBCook]

I liked the TouchBar. There were two problems with it:

1. It replaced the F keys. I suspect pros wouldn’t have complained so loudly if it didn’t. And it was too expensive for the cheaper computers where it may have been more popular.

2. They never changed it. Ok the first version wasn’t a big hit. Other than bringing back the escape key they never did anything. They sent it out to be a hit or to die and gave up there.

[pasc1878]

I would note that Steve Jobs would have probably supported removing the F keys.

See the NeXT keyboards - no F keys. http://xahlee.info/kbd/NeXT_computer_keyboard.html

The ones with the command key beneath the space were nice - except for the help key being so prominent.

[vkou]

Steve Jobs also thought that the abomination that was that stupid circular mouse was the pinnacle of UX.

Requiring the use of two hands in order to right click is also a fascinating hill to die on. I'm surprised that the operation didn't also require a foot pedal, all to, presumably, not confuse their users with the inclusion of a second button on their mice.

[chocochunks]

What's wild is they STILL haven't built a mouse with two switches for clicking. Right clicking is on all their mice/trackpads faked with things like touch sensors. They are just dead set against it for some reason even though it does actually mean it's impossible to play something like a modern FPS* with a Magic Mouse.

* With the default control scheme anyways.

[lossyalgo]

Thankfully 3rd party devices are supported otherwise I'd have gone insane with just one button.

[wolvoleo]

#1 bothered me the most. A lot.

And the stupid thing was that there was plenty of space for a row of function keys and the touch bar.

[DroneBetter]

I don't think that's true, at least in the 13" model.

and the F keys come back on the touch bar if you hold the fn button

[cwsx]

My main issue was the loss of _tactile_ F keys - hard to touch type when you're finger mashing a narrow touch screen

[wolvoleo]

Not on the 13" no but they could have made the touch pad slightly smaller.

For me touch keys will never work, like the other poster said I need tactile feedback. Apple's keyboards are pretty bad at that already by the way, even the return to scissor models. The only ones I find workable are the ones of 2015 and before.

[jkxyz]

Removing the escape key is what bothered me most as someone using Vim keybindings. It made it feel very unpleasant to edit code because the Touch Bar had no physical feedback. I still have a visceral memory of how much I disliked touching the glass with my left ring finger.

[ngcazz]

That's how I moved on to reassigning caps lock to escape on my computers.

[dwaite]

I have never got into macros, so missing a row of function keys didn't impact me. A row of system integration actions (like dynamic volume and brightness controls) was nice.

However, a capacitive touch surface should not be so close to tactile buttons. This made it way more likely to falsely register actions.

Move it a half key width farther up and make it taller to have greater flexibility on how it uses the space and I think it would have been a much better feature.

IMHO the big problem is that the five year hardware cycle of the MBP is not conducive for revolutionary improvements. They had the MacBook back then, which would have been a great platform for faster design iterations.

[sysworld]

no2 is what annoyed me the most. I liked it for the most part, but it was never updated, even on the software side we had very few changes. It could've been great.

[shagie]

Even though it's showing its age (and support is being phased out in recent builds), I still liked IntelliJ with the Touch Bar laptop.

https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/touch-bar-support.html

Having the Touch Bar screen show up the relevant buttons for the context I was in was really nice compared to trying to remember which F key was which debug option.

A "I wish..." would have been a $200 usb bar and hub that could sit right behind my keyboard for a desktop.

[MBCook]

That was one of my two primary uses!

The other was I made some Shortcuts that were very handy for me and set them up as buttons. It’s been over a year, I still miss them.

One would pop up a dialog I could type a Jira ticket number into and it would open it. I tried to do that with Salesforce but they’re insane so you can’t.

My favorite would open my next meeting. Know I have a meeting in 5 minutes? Hit the button and my browser would open the right Google Meet or Zoom and come to the front.

So useful.

The desktop problem is a real one too. It was great… as long as you only use your laptop as a laptop or your keyboard. Use anything else and you list it.

iMac? No. Mac Pro? No. Mac Mini? Don’t be stupid. No.

MBP only.

[rprwhite]

My primary issue with the TouchBar, losing the F keys was a concern but lot my primary one, was that it required me to look at it to use it. With keys you can feel them, and learn their place. But, the TouchBar had me looking at it and not the screen to do something. If it was angled so I could see it in my periphery whilst looking at the screen it would been awesome.