Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The arrow keys are one of the most essential parts of a keyboard for people who write a lot of code or otherwise do a lot of copyediting.

This type of user needs to be able to lock on to the arrow keys repeatedly and unconsciously without fail throughout the work day.

Apple's keyboard designers understood this and got it right for over 15 years. But that changed in 2016.

As of 2016, Apple's new keyboards provide zero affordances for these kinds of users and are completely unsuitable for real work.

You couldn't pay me enough to use one of these keyboard for writing code, and I certainly wouldn't pay my own money for one.



> The arrow keys are one of the most essential parts of a keyboard for people who write a lot of code

Ahem... I think you meant "hjkl".

Just joking ;)


How's that escape key going? :p


Honest question: Why are you using arrow keys for coding?


If you’re going to suggest vim bindings, fine, I get it; but the act of moving a cursor around to insert, remove, replace, or otherwise refactor parts of code is pretty essential to my workflow and I can’t imagine how someone wouldn’t need it. I use structural editing shortcuts quite a bit, but not 100% of the time.


I'd guess that people who aren't mac-native don't realize how well the various arrow and option/ctrl/command/shift combinations work for editing.

Or, uh, did. Before, y'know, they stopped providing a T-shaped arrow panel.


I think you’d be surprised as to how many people just use the mouse for that.


Sometimes resulting in RSI




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: