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Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

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Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#101

Post by AQuantized »

geenat wrote: post #69
can16358p wrote: post #67

Am I the only one (fullstack programmer + designer + hobby photographer) here who's perfectly okay with a single laptop monitor? Maybe it's to do with I love being mobile, maybe it's that I use UI and text very small, but I can perfectly fit either 3 Vscode tabs, or website + PIP video, a few terminals, many views in Sketch or a combination of those in a screen (16" MBP). I'm also okay with working with Photoshop or…

With all due respect comments like this are why hacker news needs a downvote button. Try a decent monitor setup before knocking it.

Comments like this are why the Hacker News downvote button is restricted.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#104

Post by alexfoo »

bertjk wrote: post #74
alexfoo wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For screen sharing I use Picture-in-Picture mode of my 43” 4K monitor (Acer DM431K) to give me a separate 1920x1080 screen to share when required. That way it is at the right size and resolution for everyone.

Interesting.. does this mean you have two separate cables connecting to two different inputs of the monitor?

Yes. One HDMI 2.0 to give me 4K@60Hz and then one usb-c to HDMI (or is it DP) for the PiP.

Only one input on this specific monitor can do 4K@60Hz, all the others are 4K@30Hz or good refresh at lower resolutions.

Takes 20 seconds to enable the second display in display settings and then pick the right input for the PiP mode on the monitor (it has a remote). Most of the time I have my personal laptop displaying in the PiP frame lower right. The remaining 3/4 of the screen is my work area.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#105

Post by Zak »

dcchambers wrote: post #93

My ideal programming screen is a 1:1 square. Before I got my 4K display I tried using a 24" 1920x1080 monitor in vertical orientation, and found that even though 1080 pixels wide should be enough to render any website fine, some websites (including some pretty big/important websites) started treating my screen as a mobile device screen, hiding many elements and giving me the mobile view/UI. I guess those sites weren'…

> I guess those sites weren't detecting user agent and were detecting screen resolution?

CSS does this via media queries and allows for different layouts without sending different content. Switching to a mobile-optimized layout at 1080px (note "px" doesn't mean physical pixels to a mobile browser) seems a bit aggressive though.

I imagine it wouldn't be hard for a browser extension to override this behavior, though it could lead to broken layouts or horizontal scrolling.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#106

Post by swsieber »

dcchambers wrote: post #93

My ideal programming screen is a 1:1 square. Before I got my 4K display I tried using a 24" 1920x1080 monitor in vertical orientation, and found that even though 1080 pixels wide should be enough to render any website fine, some websites (including some pretty big/important websites) started treating my screen as a mobile device screen, hiding many elements and giving me the mobile view/UI. I guess those sites weren'…

Some 4k screens allow you to split the screen down the middle and act as two monitors. Maybe that'd be nice for you?

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#107

Post by nimbius »

fools begone.

The ideal monitor rotation --the one that secures the most favour on HN-- is a slow 1-2 centimetre per second continuous orbit about the office in 2 dimensions on a tracked rail. This in turn ensures that one may not only glorify their monitors rotation, but also glorify their practice of standing whilst working instead of sitting. The movement --which rotates as well amongst its own Z axis-- also promotes good evangelical proselytization of the many woes of desk sitting, for example, that ten million people die per second for not standing at the lectern as a fourteenth century pork belly clearinghouse clerk.

At days end then the monitor should be guided into a velvet sack, and stored gently atop a layer of old Haskell parchments that it may succor inspiration at the next stand-up which is conducted standing, as our christ lord intended.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#108

Post by throw10920 »

can16358p wrote: post #67

Am I the only one (fullstack programmer + designer + hobby photographer) here who's perfectly okay with a single laptop monitor? Maybe it's to do with I love being mobile, maybe it's that I use UI and text very small, but I can perfectly fit either 3 Vscode tabs, or website + PIP video, a few terminals, many views in Sketch or a combination of those in a screen (16" MBP). I'm also okay with working with Photoshop or…

"Needed" isn't the right word to use here, because you don't really need very much in software development.

Use a non-visual text editor without highlighting, like ed. Compile your React by hand. Skip TypeScript, you don't need the computer to check your work. /s

Programmers use tools and automation because it makes them more efficient, not because they're needed, and I believe that having multiple monitors (and larger ones? I'm reading [1] right now and it suggests that, which makes sense - if a larger fraction of your field of view is consumed by the same monitor, that's less effort for your brain to parse stuff you see, and fewer distractions; also see [2]) does that. I hypothesize, although I haven't been able to find empirical evidence, that having multiple windows spread across multiple monitors is cognitively superior to alt-tabbing between them.

Additionally, laptop are really bad for you ergonomically. Use a small screen if you must, but your back is not going to be happy after 5 years of programming on a laptop - I know mine isn't.

[1] https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA461180.pdf

[2] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/...

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#109

Post by lordnacho »

Clearly there's a market for S-shaped monitors. You get the benefits of two landscape sections, two portrait sections, a central 45d section, and two small 45d sections, useful for putting notifications in.

Kidding aside, I just have 2 gaming monitors on either side of my MBP, in landscape. A screen for monitoring prod, a comms screen, and a code screen. When needed I slide out a coding window to another monitor.

I also use the extra desktops for my calendar and my task list. Three-fingers slide one way to see my calendar in maximized Safari, the other way to look at tasks in maximized Trello.

About vertical coding, I tend to think that if you need to go vertical to understand the code, it's already too long. Note I don't mean it must fit in landscape, I'm saying if it doesn't AND you need to see it in vertical for it to make sense, that's a smell. YMMV.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#110

Post by zcw100 »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #15
djbusby wrote: post #13

I've got 3, left is 90, center is 0 and right is -90. It's Tall,Wide,Tall layout. Works a treat.

Tall monitors must be hard on the neck if you frequently need to see the top half of it. The ergonomic recommendation is keeping the monitors at eye level. How do you deal with that?

I've found that to be generally true but there's one caveat, it only hurts your neck looking up from horizontal not from horizontal down. Think about how you read a book. You don't hold it directly out in front of you, you kind of prop it up on your lap. I could read for hours like that. Or look at a concert pianist. They'll either be looking at the sheet music directly in front of them or down at the keys. That's why I go with stacked monitors, one directly in front and the other angled between the first monitor and the keyboard.
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