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Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

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Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#131

Post by SomeoneFromCA »

Joeri wrote: post #98
LASR wrote: 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.

It is surprising how much more affordable 4k displays are. I was stuck finding a suitable display for my macbook being used to the 5k iMac, and ended up with the 32 inch samsung m8, which is one third what apple charges for the 5k studio display. I find myself liking it more in practice than the 5k imac, because while it is a bit less crisp, the colors once properly set up are equally nice and the size is luxurious.

Well M8 is a VA. Good for movies, not as good for everything else.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#132

Post by barnabee »

vakz wrote: post #74
LASR wrote: 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. I…

The advantage I've found with multiple monitors is the ability to independently switch the "desktop" that's showing on each.

I can have a desktop for coding, a desktop for reference docs and previews, another for working on non-coding tasks, one with general browsing, one for chat/email/calendar, etc.

I've not found a satisfying way (on Mac OS on my Macbook or with various WMs — Sway is my go-to) to quickly replicate this ability to have multiple task oriented sets of windows visible at the same time and make them quickly switchable without multiple physical screens.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#133

Post by baq »

wongarsu wrote: post #127
danieldisu wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Always focus on PPI, some rough numbers 27” 5k (5120 x 2880) -> 218 PPI 32” 4k (3840 x 2160) -> 137.68 PPI 34” 5k (5120 x 2160) -> 163.44 PPI 39,7 5K (5120 x 2160) -> 139.97 PPI Apple Pro Display XDR 32" 6k (6016 x 3384) -> 218 PPI

My preferred setup in terms of screen real estate is 24" 2k (2560x1440) without scaling. In terms of PPI it's a bit low (122), but 244 PPI 24" screens are hard to get. 1.5x scaling is an option

I like 25x14 on a 27" and the fact that on a mac you have to buy BetterDisplay just to make it work about 80% as good as on Windows makes me... not at all surprised since I'm supposed to use an apple display with an apple computer, right?

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#134

Post by barnabee »

larodi wrote: post #88
LASR wrote: 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 find it difficult to actually figure the proper position where the 27” Dell 4K (still very top notch) is just as far so that I can see it and not have to move my head left and right. Anything beyond this size may be OK for games, but too much space and too much windows is actually too much of cognitive load. It is not a surprise that many ppl (not me though) start to prefer full screen terminal rather than dozen wi…

> I find it difficult to actually figure the proper position where the 27” Dell 4K (still very top notch) is just as far so that I can see it and not have to move my head left and right.

> Anything beyond this size may be OK for games, but too much space and too much windows is actually too much of cognitive load.

I find the oppposite. The goal is not to be looking at everything all of the time but to make anything I might want, from key chat channels or monitoring dashboards, to my calendar, reference docs, secondary source files, etc. to all be "glanceable" within a given context.

I find a glance, even if it requires a turn of the head, is far preferable and breaks my flow/immersion much less than having to switch windows/desktops in place. It feels much more natural to me to place things like my calendar in a consistent physical place than to have everything intrude on one place, and I find it much easier to build the muscle memory for these glances.

The biggest downside is that travelling, even with a small second monitor, completely breaks the setup.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#135

Post by walteweiss »

bboygravity wrote: post #128
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to google as well (like another commenter), I did find a lot of 1:1 ratio screens though; I wouldn't mind that I think.

I use a phone with a 1:1 screen. Unihertz Titan in case you're curious.

Tell us more! Why is so, is it useful?

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#136

Post by kzemek »

pjerem wrote: post #126
larodi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it difficult to actually figure the proper position where the 27” Dell 4K (still very top notch) is just as far so that I can see it and not have to move my head left and right. Anything beyond this size may be OK for games, but too much space and too much windows is actually too much of cognitive load. It is not a surprise that many ppl (not me though) start to prefer full screen terminal rather than dozen wi…

My dream monitor is a 22” 4K monitor. I searched it for a decade and this creature just doesn’t exists. There have never been a single 4K monitor under 27”. The only thing that somehow could do the job would be iMac’s panels but I’m just not interested in an All in one and I already have good enough computers.

> There have never been a single 4K monitor under 27”.

There's a few 24", Dell has at least a couple.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#137

Post by hosteur »

SomeoneFromCA wrote: post #131
Joeri wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is surprising how much more affordable 4k displays are. I was stuck finding a suitable display for my macbook being used to the 5k iMac, and ended up with the 32 inch samsung m8, which is one third what apple charges for the 5k studio display. I find myself liking it more in practice than the 5k imac, because while it is a bit less crisp, the colors once properly set up are equally nice and the size is luxurious.

Well M8 is a VA. Good for movies, not as good for everything else.

Why is that? And what type is better and why?

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#138

Post by andix »

LASR wrote: 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 don't get the point of a lot of monitors. My current setup is a 4K 32" 16:9, which I do 98% of my work on. Everything on one big screen.

I have another monitor next to it, which I sometimes use for to put documentation on, a hot reloading web app I'm working on, maybe a video I'm watching while doing some work, or a video conference while I'm screen sharing. But turning my head to the secondary monitor is too much of a burden to really use it a lot. 80% of the time the second monitor is just empty.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#139

Post by walteweiss »

barnabee wrote: post #132
vakz wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I…

The advantage I've found with multiple monitors is the ability to independently switch the "desktop" that's showing on each. I can have a desktop for coding, a desktop for reference docs and previews, another for working on non-coding tasks, one with general browsing, one for chat/email/calendar, etc. I've not found a satisfying way (on Mac OS on my Macbook or with various WMs — Sway is my go-to) to quickly replicate…

How would you organise such a multiple display setup in sway?

I use sway on my laptop only, but Gnome 45 and macOS is easier for me, for now. When it comes to multiple displays. The best feature of sway for me is the ability to assign apps to their workspaces, and also assign hotkeys to these workspaces. So e.g. cmd+alt+e opens Files app (nautilus) and it’s always on its files workspace that I activate with cmd+e. Quite very useful for me. I almost never open windows tiled, very seldom that I have two at one screen.

So with multiple displays, I am quite unsure how to organise that, which logic to apply here. Maybe I alt-tab out of old habit, but it’s so much easier, cognitively speaking, comparing to remembering all the logic for my multiple displays setup.

Re: Ideal monitor rotation for programmers (2021)

#140

Post by tecleandor »

xxs wrote: post #29
huytersd wrote: post #21

When has line length ever been an issue? That 22 degree thing is hell. You can see like 5 lines, it would drive me insane.

>When has line length ever been an issue? The early 90s - even the glorious VGA didn't have much large than 80 columns, it took VESA to bring the 132×43 text mode. Then early '00, with whoever managed to come with the extreme anti-pattern of having extremely long class names in Java, 1024x768 was not enough by far (and 800x600 was a joke).

Although I think almost nobody follows it anymore, Python's PEP-8 still dictates lines of a maximum of 79 columns by default :D
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