Time to Upgrade Your Monitor • Hacker News Board

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#241

Post by the_af » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:49 PM UTC

thomaslord wrote: post #239

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

Hello! Person who actively dislikes 4k here. In my experience: 1. No matter what operating system you're on, you'll eventually run into an application that doesn't render in high dpi mode. Depending on the OS that can mean it renders tiny, or that the whole things is super ugly and pixelated (WAY worse than on a native 1080p display) 2. If the 4k screen is on your laptop, good luck ever having a decent experience plu…

Thanks for sharing your experience!

> My argument in favor of 1080p is that I find text to just be... completely readable.

Yes, me too. To me it's more than just readable, I find the text crisp and comfortable. I don't need anything else.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#242

Post by theshrike79 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

opencl wrote: post #231

akersten wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I wouldn't say having a mechanical keyboard makes your code any higher quality - that'd be pretty silly. I think in general the thought is, if you care enough about your craft that you seek out refined tools, that care will be reflected in higher-quality development. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but I'm inclined to believe there's a correlation. I mean, it would be weird to visit a professional car…

I've seen plenty of professionals using Harbor Freight tools, usually not carpenters but the tile saws and wrenches seem popular for professional use. The correlation seems more likely to me that if you can afford the fancy tools then you've already had some level of success. Though there are those new mechanics who bury themselves in a mountain of debt buying a whole chest full of Snap-On stuff...

Well the old Harbor Freight stuff was REALLY good, then they sold out and it turned to crap.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#243

Post by asdff » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

adtac wrote: post #44

This is going to sound like I want to eat the cake and still have it, but I wish there was some sort of balance between real estate, sharpness, and affordability. A 24in 4K monitor without scaling makes text too small, but at 200%, it's no different from a 1080p monitor real estate-wise (even though text is much crisper). My current monitor, a 1440p 24in screen at 100%, serves all of my real estate needs, but leaves…

You can make text bigger without scaling in pretty much every application there is with text.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#244

Post by buserror » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

I think that it's a long article to just say that a 1) good 2) big screen, or two, or 3 is a good idea. The bigerrer, the beterrer.

I wrote a lot of code on Mac classic format (512x342) using Monaco 9 -- it was great; next step was 640x480, and 800x600, and then (for a rather long time) 1024x768.

It was still perfectly fine, as (at the time) Apple screens were some of the best, nice crisp, clear with good contrast. I didn't feel particularly handicapped because of the screen real estate, you just adapt to what you have.

Now my main machine is Linux with 2*32" 4K screen side-by-side, and about 60cm from me. I use Liberation Mono 17pt as a terminal font, and 9pt is just microscopic on the screen.

And guess what? I still wish I had a bit more screen space sometime! :-)

One thing I always tell more junior developers who ask me about what the most valuable piece of information about programming in my whole career is: Get a good SCREEN, get a good KEYBOARD, and get a good CHAIR, the rest are just details.

Oh, also, make sure the screen(s) are perpendicular to any window, and watch that posture!

:-)

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#245

Post by rkagerer » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

TLDR: Buy a high-end gaming monitor, and plug into GPU with modern connectivity... to make your fonts look better.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#246

Post by phkahler » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:50 PM UTC

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

I use a 55" curved 4k TV as my monitor. It's not pixel density that's important for reading text, but contrast. The best thing for coding is a high contrast bitmapped font with no smoothing.

My monitor is still available at Walmart for $500. It's like an actual desktop when you can spread out all your stuff.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#247

Post by kstenerud » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

He puts up some nice technical arguments, and I'm sure a 4k monitor is right for him, but really it comes down to what you're actually comfortable with. I stopped worrying about resolution the moment I got my first 19" (CRT) monitor. Resolution was high enough to fit as much text as I needed, and really that's all that ever mattered. I've used retina displays but I've never felt they make enough of a difference to matter. I've worked on 32" displays, and while they're nice, I've never felt like I'm missing real estate when I move back to a 1080p display.

Font smoothing has never bothered me, but what DOES bother me is this trend towards lower contrast, and "flat UIs" that lack any differentiation between sections in the UI. Win95, while ugly by today's standards, was easy to read and follow. And the black-on-white text is something I miss dearly.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#248

Post by pmiller2 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

> ... too opinionated for my liking.

Put yourself in the mindset of a typography geek. Then, by default, you will care about almost all of these things. I'm not saying you should care about all of these things all or most of the time, but that's the correct mindset to put you in sync with the author's conclusions (mostly -- I don't really think 120Hz is that big a deal).

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#249

Post by GoblinSlayer » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

chrismorgan wrote: post #211

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

Have you used a 4K display, for at least a few days? If you have, I still disagree with you, but if not, I’m going to completely ignore your opinion, because I find the difference in how pleasant it is to use a good screen just so vast. Sure, you can do things on a lousy monitor, but it’s terrible and you’ll hate it. :) (My first laptop was a second-hand HP 6710b at 1680×1050 for 15″, and that set me to never accepti…

4K display isn't bigger though. It only has better resolution, the size of all graphic elements in centimeters stays the same.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#250

Post by mthoms » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:52 PM UTC

For those using JetBrains IDE's and MacOS:

Try experimenting with the font rendering settings in the prefs. There's a "middle" option of "greyscale-only" text aliasing in addition to the regular off or on settings.

Depending on your monitor, font choice, and personal preferences you might see an improvement by playing around with these.

Anecdotally, when I had an older MBP with a weak integrated GPU, lowering the anti-aliasing setting to greyscale (or off) seeming to increase the responsiveness and framerate on my 4K display in JetBrains IDE's. It was particularly noticeable when scrolling.