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Touch Bar Simulator — The macOS Touch Bar Simulator as a standalone app

Sindre Sorhus

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8yr ago

Touch Bar Simulator lets you use the Touch Bar on any Mac.

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Sindre Sorhus

Scratchpad

Maker

I recently got into macOS development [0] and Swift, and I'm currently working on an app where I want to support the Touch Bar. I don't have the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, so I was stuck with having to launch the simulator from inside Xcode. I built this app to make it easier to code and design for the Touch Bar. Not everyone has or even wants Xcode installed, for example, designers, non-developers, or developers making apps with Electron (which now supports the Touch Bar). This app bundles the Touch Bar simulator at build time so users don't need to have Xcode installed. It also adds a handy screenshot button. I'm happy to entertain other useful features. Note that it requires macOS 10.12.2 or later. It's of course open-source. Contributions welcome! :) [0]: https://www.producthunt.com/post...

8yr ago

Honey Raj Varma

@sindresorhus you had me at "I recently got into macOS development [0] and Swift..." - thats great, how long have you been learning?

8yr ago

Sindre Sorhus

Scratchpad

Maker

@raj_ventures About 3 months.

8yr ago

Arun Pattnaik

AI Starter | An AI "Biz-in-a-Box"

The screenshot icon takes the screenshot of touchbar itself.

8yr ago

Sindre Sorhus

Scratchpad

Maker

@arunpattnaik That's a feature. What did you expect?

8yr ago

Sam Dickie

Softr

@sindresorhus @arunpattnaik to open facetime or screenshot?

8yr ago

Arun Pattnaik

AI Starter | An AI "Biz-in-a-Box"

@thisdickie @sindresorhus The icon made me think it'll open photo booth. Screenshot-ing the touchbar didn't intuitively cross my mind. But then I'm not a developer, so it could be just me.

8yr ago

Justin Stanley

@sindresorhus @arunpattnaik I think maybe you're thinking that that button is on a real touch bar as well...it's not...that's just for this app to grab a screenshot of the touch bar. (There is a screenshot button you can add to the system button area, but that's another story).

8yr ago

Ahmed Sulaiman

Toaster

Looks great! QAs and Designers could use this simulator to test Touch Bar support without installing Xcode and stuff. Screenshot button also would be useful for them 😉 Well done!

8yr ago

Ghost Kitty

Comment Deleted

8yr ago

Sindre Sorhus

Scratchpad

Maker

@tchret I'm starting out by solving my own problems. Both Battery Indicator and the next app I'm working on, are apps I really want to use myself. I approach app development by thinking - How simple can I make this app while still solving the 95% use-case? I deliberately try to have as few settings as possible, as most users just want a great experience than having to configure one themselves.

8yr ago

Edwin Klesman

LINQ Me Up

This standalone build of the Touch Bar Simulator is a really welcome addition. Using, trying, and developing with the Touch Bar now is within everybody's reach! #sharingiscaring

8yr ago

Lisa Dziuba

Don’t Panic by Lemon.io

That's a very good alternative to buying a new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar 😂

8yr ago

Johnny

Berry Browser 🍇🌙

@lisadziuba haha this was actually my situation. i was considering getting the new MBP after the superb Apple marketing videos... but after trying the touch bar in Duet Display, it was easy to see the touch bar wasn't for me. saved $1990.00 :)

8yr ago

Abe Bahgat

for Macbook pro touchbar users - you can already take a screenshot of the touchbar by using the built in keyboard shortcut CMD+SHIFT+6

8yr ago

Harry Liu

This is super cool! It even automatically adjust buttons after I opened Sketch 3. Two suggestions: 1) Allow user to pin the touch bar on the bottom of screen. 2) Allow user to enable the touch bar take up full width of the screen.

8yr ago