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Comment by GeekyBear | Hacker News Reader

This is the wrong audience to ask about the touch bar, however there is an entire population of computer users out there for whom standard function keys are less than useless.

>About 90 per cent of computer users don't use CTRL-F to search for a word - as they don't know such a keyboard shortcut exists, a Google survey found. The results stunned Google's Uber Tech Lead for Search Quality and User Happiness, Dan Russell.

"I think we just all assume that we all know it, but no one actually does."

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/only-one-in-10-know-what-c...

For the 90% of users who don't know that Ctrl-F is find, having a row of contextual command icons for the foreground program instead of a row of useless function keys is a step up.

I think they should just continue to make standard function keys available for the minority of users who find them important to their own workflow.

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So put the Touch Bar on the MacBook Air for non pro users, and the function keys for pro users. They put the training wheels on the Ferrari.

The Macbook Pro is a "professional" tool in the same way you can buy "professional" hair straighteners: It's the same thing, but a bit better for a bit more money.

True professional-only tools are things like Jira and Oracle Financials, and you can recognise them because the users hate them.

Developers that use Vim aren't the only "pro users" to exist.

I always wondered why we don't have keys for Copy and Paste.

We have "Print Screen", which is a function I don't use that often.

(Not a Mac user, so I'm talking about regular PC keyboards).

In the old days I had a Sun workstation with Copy and Paste keys.

Up until the very early 1990s, computer keyboards had a place to position a cardboard (or sometimes plastic) strip, documenting the meaning of the function keys.

The computer (or OS) might come with one, but commercial software would also include a cardboard strip in the box, along with the manuals.

Many examples: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/shift-happens/issues/as-clos...

It's like upvoting is not enough, here. I've witnessed that some users love their Macbooks' Touchbars, at the same time I'm surprised so few users recourse to these extremely low tech tricks. Just like the camera cover thing that's also trending on HN best: pen and paper and other thing just (almost) anyone can use can still benefit proper use of rocket tech :)

edit: Plus thanks for the link! I've not read the article but the pics are great up to the end! So much inventivity on how to upgrade bona fide keyboards with relatively low tech all through computer history!

I should also take advantage of the occasion to mention that I find it a pity that we don't use keyboard keys as 101 complementary buttons for the mouse/trackpad :D

On the one hand, that's entertaining and it's easy to laugh at people who don't know those shortcuts. On the other hand: to this day I don't know if iOS Mobile Safari supports finding text on a page.

Select the address bar, and start typing. At the bottom of the search results it will say “on this page”

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