Comments on: Apple: Semi-First Impressions http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2008/12/05/apple-semi-first-impressions/ Rod Hilton's views on programming, technology, and life. Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:29:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Mark Stock http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2008/12/05/apple-semi-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-38671 Mark Stock Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:01:28 +0000 http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/?p=146#comment-38671 Good read. I am a long time Mac user and I have to agree with you about iTunes. It gets suckier and suckier with every new version. Perhaps, I am going in the opposite direction that you are because I am running Linux within Parallels on my Mac. There are things in Linux that I can run right away without fussing about with things that aren't there in Darwin/Mac OS X. For what it's worth, Apple gives you a choice of another hardware and software platform. Like many things in the world I don't necessary think that one is any better than the other, they are just different. Good read. I am a long time Mac user and I have to agree with you about iTunes. It gets suckier and suckier with every new version.

Perhaps, I am going in the opposite direction that you are because I am running Linux within Parallels on my Mac. There are things in Linux that I can run right away without fussing about with things that aren’t there in Darwin/Mac OS X.

For what it’s worth, Apple gives you a choice of another hardware and software platform. Like many things in the world I don’t necessary think that one is any better than the other, they are just different.

]]> By: Eric http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/2008/12/05/apple-semi-first-impressions/comment-page-1/#comment-38124 Eric Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:31:52 +0000 http://www.nomachetejuggling.com/?p=146#comment-38124 I've considered Cmd-Left-Arrow, Cmd-Right-Arrow and with Cocoa text inputs, ^E and ^A, to be more convenient than Home, End for moving the cursor to the beginning or end of the line. And I actually find myself using Mac-style Home/End fairly frequently when browsing the web. Then again, I'm a life long Mac user. :) However, you can reassign the Home and End keys with custom KeyBindings. Check out Allan Odgaard's explanation, which includes an example specifically for Windows-style Home/End: http://urlpixie.com/4gU I actually use custom KeyBindings to mimic vi-style home-row cursor movement. I've got Caps-Lock overridden to Option (via the Keyboard System Preferences), and set the KeyBindings so that Option-H goes left, Option-J goes down, etc. Took a little getting used to, but I can barely use a computer without it now. That said, KeyBindings do only apply to Cocoa text inputs. They don't work in Carbon text inputs like the Finder's, and they also don't work in Firefox 3's, last I checked. Firefox 3 is supposed to be Cocoa based, but they're doing something awful in the name of cross-platform compatibility that breaks it. I’ve considered Cmd-Left-Arrow, Cmd-Right-Arrow and with Cocoa text inputs, ^E and ^A, to be more convenient than Home, End for moving the cursor to the beginning or end of the line. And I actually find myself using Mac-style Home/End fairly frequently when browsing the web. Then again, I’m a life long Mac user. :)

However, you can reassign the Home and End keys with custom KeyBindings. Check out Allan Odgaard’s explanation, which includes an example specifically for Windows-style Home/End: http://urlpixie.com/4gU

I actually use custom KeyBindings to mimic vi-style home-row cursor movement. I’ve got Caps-Lock overridden to Option (via the Keyboard System Preferences), and set the KeyBindings so that Option-H goes left, Option-J goes down, etc. Took a little getting used to, but I can barely use a computer without it now.

That said, KeyBindings do only apply to Cocoa text inputs. They don’t work in Carbon text inputs like the Finder’s, and they also don’t work in Firefox 3’s, last I checked. Firefox 3 is supposed to be Cocoa based, but they’re doing something awful in the name of cross-platform compatibility that breaks it.

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