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Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

sprocketfox.io

71–80 of 341 posts

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#71

On a similar note, I once again wish more displays were 3:2, and more people knew about it. The human central (not peripheral) vision’s ratio is very close to 3:2, yet due to economics of scale 16:9 is marginally cheaper and much more common. And if someone is wondering, no, rotating 16:9 vertically for more vertical space doesn’t help because it makes it very narrow - for me IMO a square display would be the best. (…

yesss... I discovered how wrong the widescreen displays are after I had found an old IBM Thinkpad in my basement and tried it. To add to what you said, I will also point out that it's the vertical space that often gets pinched by toolbars and such, effectively squishing your working area to an even wider ratio. And when working with text (reading, writing), the left and right edges of my screen are just slabs of empt…

At least on OS X, using a free utility, I can set two apps to exactly split the screen with two key presses and one mouse click. ON a 16:9 it comes back to being an actually decent aspect ratio for reading text.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#72
post #51

I'm using 3 monitors currently (one vertical) and I'm used to utilizing keyboard shortcuts for moving windows between screens - for example I can move window onto vertical screen and then into bottom half of it, all using keyboard. The question for people using single ultrawide screen instead of multiples - is something like this possible to achieve? are you able to define virtual "regions" on the screen space to mov…

I'm using Rectangle[1] on Mac for this. But Raycast also has some functionality in that direction.

[1] - https://rectangleapp.com/

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#73

On a similar note, I once again wish more displays were 3:2, and more people knew about it. The human central (not peripheral) vision’s ratio is very close to 3:2, yet due to economics of scale 16:9 is marginally cheaper and much more common. And if someone is wondering, no, rotating 16:9 vertically for more vertical space doesn’t help because it makes it very narrow - for me IMO a square display would be the best. (…

For laptops definitely. Screen above ~24"? I don't really think this is that relevant and if have multiple windows open side by side it's the opposite (16:9 is more ergonomic than 3:2,).

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#74
post #44

Tangentially related thought: Take my advice, don't go ultra-wide. Go with a large 4k. You get more pixels for cheaper. The only ultrawide that makes any sense is the 5k x 2k resolution one. These have more pixels than a single 4K. But they are expensive. Even then, a 16:9 5K monitor has more pixels. I personally use 3 x 27 inch 4K - which is cheaper than a single 5k Ultra-wide and gives you a TON more pixels.

On the contrary, I have a 49" 32:9 monitor, and for a laptop it's wonderful. The support for a single monitor is just way better than any dual (or more) setup.

I can just connect it directly to my laptop, and it just works. When I had two displays I needed a docking station, and truth is most of those out there suck. Unless you go for the top models, and then you've lost all the money you saved on cheaper monitors. In addition you generally need a thunderbolt compatible dock, and that seems to come with it's own category of issues, assuming your laptop even supports it.

Also found ultrawide easier to configure hotkeys for windows management.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#75
post #44

Tangentially related thought: Take my advice, don't go ultra-wide. Go with a large 4k. You get more pixels for cheaper. The only ultrawide that makes any sense is the 5k x 2k resolution one. These have more pixels than a single 4K. But they are expensive. Even then, a 16:9 5K monitor has more pixels. I personally use 3 x 27 inch 4K - which is cheaper than a single 5k Ultra-wide and gives you a TON more pixels.

I think 27" 4k with some scaling is a good spot indeed.

32" 4k is nice as well, if you scale down to 2560x1440, or 3008x1692. On 32" 2x scaling (1920x1080 is just too big, and native (3840x2160) is just too small.

But if money is no problem, 3x 24" 4k, 2x 27" 5k, or 1x 32" 6k is really the endgame. That 2x scaling is just soooo crisp. :)

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#76

is this a joke? I have 2 to 4 monitors for full stack web dev (win10) and having separate monitors instead of 1 big one is just 100% win

+1 for team separate monitors for webdev. Although I am on macOS, I use 2x 24" (with thin bezels put next to each other) plus laptop screen. The handling of the OS "window manager" is just smoother for separate screens as opposed to ultra wide: separate workspaces per screen, shortcuts (via BTT) to move windows to a specific screen and maximize etc. Too bad apple decided that using two external monitors is a "pro" fe…

Use the free square app and you can set up key combos for all your window management.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#77

On a similar note, I once again wish more displays were 3:2, and more people knew about it. The human central (not peripheral) vision’s ratio is very close to 3:2, yet due to economics of scale 16:9 is marginally cheaper and much more common. And if someone is wondering, no, rotating 16:9 vertically for more vertical space doesn’t help because it makes it very narrow - for me IMO a square display would be the best. (…

Eizo made a 1920x1920 display that I think has been discontinued; a very good review: https://youtu.be/gJG9HOQITrg The LG DualUp is an almost-square 16:18 monitor, higher resolution than the Eizo and almost half the price.

Unfortunately, unusual screen sizes and OLED aren't as available in combination. And since I spend all day in a terminal, having the black background be off is wonderful. I would love 3:2, but I get more value from OLED.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#78
post #7

Maybe it would be smarter to use one of the these? Samsung 43" M70A 4K UHD Smart Monitor https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/monitors/smart-monitors...

Ever since I found out that many new monitors don't have an RGB subpixel layout, I've been paranoid. I can't find the layout for this one. any idea?

At 4k, I've found grayscale antialiasing quite sufficient and don't miss the fringing effect of subpixel AA.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#80
While this article presents it in a humorous way, some air traffic control systems actually do use a diagonally rotated screen, with that "long line" being lined up with the primary approach to the airport. The setup I got to observe involved large displays that worked with stylus input.

These weren't ultra-widescreen displays; they were relatively standard aspect-ratio displays, rotated at an angle.

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