Dual Monitor Delight

[JasonH]

Got myself a second monitor today, a sweet delicious Asus, and have no idea how I ever coded without one. Especially considering I have a books24x7 subscription through my company, alt-tabbing was such a pain, I dont know how I've dealth with one monitor for so long after a couple hours with two :D (Almost sounds like a double entendre there too :D)

Anyone else feel the same way after making the switch or is it just me?

 

[Andy Nguyen]

I got 4 monitors at work and I don't know how people are still on one monitor. You will be amazed how much more productive you will be.
At home, I'm still on my 14" laptop so that'll do.

 

[Dibbs]

I got dual monitors at the start of my MFE degree! best investment ever ! (considering it was only 200$ to get a second 23" monitor).

 

[D Serg]

I have 24' Dell on my work, and second one is Dell 18' is always turned off - my eyesight is more important.

 

[ChrisN]

2 screens are a must! I have 3 screens at work which makes life easier but two is the absolute minimum!

 

[cgorac]

2 screens are a must!

"A must" - for what type of work? I'm sitting in front of single monitor, doing programming work, for more than 20 years now (last 15 or so in front of laptop screen actually), and I find no use whatsoever for more - I have xterm open on the left side of my screen, emacs on the right side, and with 1600x1200 screen resolution of my ThinkPad, there is even plenty of spare space around...

 

[Tsotne]

Got myself a second monitor today, a sweet delicious Asus, and have no idea how I ever coded without one. Especially considering I have a books24x7 subscription through my company, alt-tabbing was such a pain, I dont know how I've dealth with one monitor for so long after a couple hours with two :D (Almost sounds like a double entendre there too :D)

Anyone else feel the same way after making the switch or is it just me?

I could say the same about my iPad. Although I cannot carry many softwares on it (the issue discussed in related recent thread)
I still find it very useful. I almost forgot about my laptop which was too heavy to carry. 2 things I'm missing about it are 1) the keyboard. I cannot get used to iPad touch screen keyboard since it is ugly for me to type on it. And 2) programs not written on objective-C. I cannot install some of my programs which I have on my laptop and home PC (both running under win7). And one PC at work running Win XP. Other things are just amazing.

 

[Ohad]

"A must" - for what type of work? I'm sitting in front of single monitor, doing programming work, for more than 20 years now (last 15 or so in front of laptop screen actually), and I find no use whatsoever for more - I have xterm open on the left side of my screen, emacs on the right side, and with 1600x1200 screen resolution of my ThinkPad, there is even plenty of spare space around...

Instead of being so against it just try it.

I found the switch to multi-screen being very helpful as others describe.

I got 4 monitors at work and I don't know how people are still on one monitor. You will be amazed how much more productive you will be.
At home, I'm still on my 14" laptop so that'll do.

You need a special splitter / video card for that? Can you refer me to one? I was thinking of going up a notch more than 2 screens.

 

[cgorac]

Instead of being so against it just try it.

I found the switch to multi-screen being very helpful as others describe.

Monitors are not that costly these days, but still it would be silly to buy one just for the sake of "trying" something that I know up front I don't need (even borrowing it from someone for this purpose would be cumbersome)... I was asking for clarification regarding the type of work out of pure curiosity. I can certainly imagine two or more monitors useful for some types of work (and, in some cases, maybe even for programming work), but stating generally that more monitors are "a must, period" just doesn't make sense for me; it would be much more helpful if you guys write in which ways you find working with many monitors "very helpful".

 

[Ohad]

Monitors are not that costly these days, but still it would be silly to buy one just for the sake of "trying" something that I know up front I don't need (even borrowing it from someone for this purpose would be cumbersome)... I was asking for clarification regarding the type of work out of pure curiosity. I can certainly imagine two or more monitors useful for some types of work (and, in some cases, maybe even for programming work), but stating generally that more monitors are "a must, period" just doesn't make sense for me; it would be much more helpful if you guys write in which ways you find working with many monitors "very helpful".

In programming it certainly helps, at least to me.
Having some PDF with instructions/the model I program/etc opened and viewable in less than a change of a few angles of my eyeball reduce my downtime.

Also,switching from tab to tab gets mentally annoying, comparing graphs one next to the other is simpler etc.

I'm sure that you can find an old monitor somewhere, it takes 5 min to set it up, worth the try if you ask me.

 

[cgorac]

In programming it certainly helps, at least to me.
Having some PDF with instructions/the model I program/etc opened and viewable in less than a change of a few angles of my eyeball reduce my downtime.

I'd rather move my fingers (Alt+Tab) than my neck.

Also,switching from tab to tab gets mentally annoying, comparing graphs one next to the other is simpler etc.

I didn't get that part - which tabs and graphs?

As a matter of fact, recently I've tried one of those "netbook" variations of the desktop environment, where there is always single full-screen top-level window active only (and you do Alt+Tab to switch from program to program all the time). It actually worked very well for me (sort of reminiscence of old days spent working in terminal), I'd probably keep it functionality-wise but it was rather unusual to have xterm/emacs in more that 80x40 chars resolution...

 

[D Serg]

Guys, let's be realistic. Just try to separate what you want from what you need taking into consideration your health and productivity.
I'm doing programming for years, and I'm very productive with one monitor. I tried for some time to work with two (at home I have 2 monitors Dell 22' and now one is turned off also): I noted that I lose time on switching my focus and when I open applications and put them on other monitor.
I have seen many programmers who didn't wear glasses, but now they do. Not the case for me, because I take a lot of care about health.
When you have two monitors - it's tough for your eyes, and not only eyes - did you know that?
When you have two monitors with different resolutions - it's extremely tough for your eyes.

Maybe many monitors quite good for trading - but it's different story

 

[Ohad]

I'd rather move my fingers (Alt+Tab) than my neck.

I didn't get that part - which tabs and graphs?

As a matter of fact, recently I've tried one of those "netbook" variations of the desktop environment, where there is always single full-screen top-level window active only (and you do Alt+Tab to switch from program to program all the time). It actually worked very well for me (sort of reminiscence of old days spent working in terminal), I'd probably keep it functionality-wise but it was rather unusual to have xterm/emacs in more that 80x40 chars resolution...

You don't move your neck, you sit with the screens in a distance and angles that you are almost always looking at the same direction.

Also,for me, there is one main screen and one for the less frequently used stuff.

But I guess that to each his own way of looking on things.

 

[alain]

Monitors are not that costly these days, but still it would be silly to buy one just for the sake of "trying" something that I know up front I don't need (even borrowing it from someone for this purpose would be cumbersome)... I was asking for clarification regarding the type of work out of pure curiosity. I can certainly imagine two or more monitors useful for some types of work (and, in some cases, maybe even for programming work), but stating generally that more monitors are "a must, period" just doesn't make sense for me; it would be much more helpful if you guys write in which ways you find working with many monitors "very helpful".

I think that's his opinion, you don't need to be so defensive about it. However, saying you don't want to try because you know you don't need them is like my son saying, he doesn't like some food even though he hasn't try it yet.

I understand the logistics problem but having a second monitor might be useful. Try it one day (if you can) and let us know.

I used to have 5 monitors at my previous job and it was delightful. Now I have two and it's still fine. At home, I have a 30 inch 1920x1200 and that's plenty.

 

[cgorac]

However, saying you don't want to try because you know you don't need them is like my son saying, he doesn't like some food even though he hasn't try it yet.

With all due respect to your son, your comparison is sort of insulting for my intelligence - do you really find it appropriate?

Again: all of my comments were about the context of doing programming work. I readily admit what I wrote above is over the top, but it's just that I find these needs for all these bells and whistles by these new generations of programmers plain silly - heck, I just need an editor and a compiler to write code, and it really doesn't matter that much to me is it going to be on 80x25 terminal screen, or on billion pixels multi-monitor array, much more important for me is that the problem in question is interesting, and that the work is rewarding. Still, I never said that people should not use multi-monitor configuration if it works for them, I was just complaining about claim that such configuration is some sort of "must".

 

[Andy D.]

I use two monitors. I do a lot of web programming, so having one screen with my code editor/IDE and another with the web browser(s) running, possibly also with Telnet/cygwin open tailing the error log.

Tabbing between the three would be possible of course, but having the second monitor is just nice.

 

[Andy D.]

Also to add to the above, if anyone has done Flash/ActionScript programming having two monitors makes life a lot easier. One monitor holds the timeline and animation and the other is used for coding.

Just my opinion here, but I think the nature of the IDE lends itself to two monitors rather than one.

 

[SYau]

3D coding