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Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

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Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#191

Post by rectang »

LegitShady wrote: post #179
rectang wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glasses which focus at your computer distance (which varies by personal preference; measure it and take that number to your optometrist) help with presbyopia. However, there are many other eye ailments which tend to appear later in life and which glasses alone cannot correct: cataracts, macular degeneration, corneal dystrophies, etc. Some are treatable through other means such as surgery.

The majority of people who lose visual accuity as they age don't get macular degeneration or cataracts during their working years, they just need reading glasses. It's a bit like saying 'my head hurts' and someone says 'take some tylenol' and you say 'some people have flesh eating brain viruses or prion diseases'. You're not technically wrong but those aren't the things that affect most people complaining about font…

I agree with you that most people only need reading glasses — or more precisely computer glasses, which are typically set to focus at 20-24 inches rather than 16 inches as is common for reading glasses.

However, I think you are understating the problems posed by other conditions. The prevalence of cataracts by age 64 is in the neighborhood of 15-20%.

https://www.nei.nih.gov/learn-about-eye-health/outreach-camp...

It's a good bet there are some people reading this who have been treated for cataracts.

> you say 'some people have flesh eating brain viruses or prion diseases'.

Dismissive attitudes like this among the visually acute are one reason website accessibility is generally so poor.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#192

Post by lovecg »

My contrarian take: I prefer to work from a small laptop, with a non-fullscreen terminal window, and no IDE. This forces me to understand the code I’m working on better - since I can’t see a lot of things at a glance, I got really good at juggling concepts in my working memory. I’ve read that visually challenged people who get really good at super fast text-to-speech almost acquire a super power of quick comprehension, and I guess I’m emulating something like that with my minimalistic setup.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#193

Post by anthony_romeo »

shaan7 wrote: post #175
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…

Yep, I can relate to why you find it curious, I do too, from the other end of the spectrum. I, for one, feel _very_ unproductive with a laptop. Personally for me I think the reason is lack of a mouse. For a long time people told me its because I was not using a MacBook (and hence its touchpad), but I tried that for ~5 years too and it didn't make much of a difference. I guess at the end when I'm using a laptop it fee…

Agree. For me, I always preferred the ‘nub’ present on some laptop models over the trackpad (despite their sad tendency to wear and drift over time).

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#194

Post by pletnes »

tomnipotent wrote: post #187
wruza wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried powertoys fancy zones (from MS itself) and never looked back. Can’t tell if it will work with 11. My layout is 4 overlapping vertical full-height panes, so I can split the screen in half, or around 2:3 either way. E.g. my browser is usually x=0, w=3/5, and my vim is x=1/2, w=1/2. This way I can see the changes in 1500+-width but slightly overlapped by an editor to feel comfortable with line widths and their l…

> powertoys fancy zones Second FanzyZones. I've remapped the keys I could to mimic i3, and the only thing keeping it from "perfect" is keyboard shortcuts to control splitting/moving/resizing. You can toggle between pre-configured fixed zones using the keyboard, which is mostly good enough. PowerToys also has a ton of other useful tools like a color picker, bulk file rename, and keyboard remapping (useful when using S…

I miss i3 on win - do you have a how-to for that? I use powertoys but only to tweak window layout a bit.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#195

Post by pshc »

zzt123 wrote: post #99
Causality1 wrote: post #17

I don't understand why 3:2 and 16:10 have taken over the mobile space but if I want one for my desktop my choices are 1920x1200 or a thirty inch, thousand dollar monstrosity with bad response times.

Bad response times plague the mobile space too. Just look at the new MBP with its 120hz display that has >40ms latency. But Mac displays, though looking gorgeous, have always had latency that was heavily perceptible. Is there even a mainstream desktop display that has anywhere near the latency of Macs?

>40ms latency is insane if true. Got a source?

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#196

Post by wruza »

Causality1 wrote: post #17

I don't understand why 3:2 and 16:10 have taken over the mobile space but if I want one for my desktop my choices are 1920x1200 or a thirty inch, thousand dollar monstrosity with bad response times.

You can always buy a inch+10% 4k 16:9 display and just set a 3:2, 16:10 or whatever resolution with cropping edges, e.g. 3456x2160 or 3240x2160 (check if your vcard can do that). It may be hard psychologically, but it’s so less expensive.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#197

Post by tomnipotent »

pletnes wrote: post #194
tomnipotent wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> powertoys fancy zones Second FanzyZones. I've remapped the keys I could to mimic i3, and the only thing keeping it from "perfect" is keyboard shortcuts to control splitting/moving/resizing. You can toggle between pre-configured fixed zones using the keyboard, which is mostly good enough. PowerToys also has a ton of other useful tools like a color picker, bulk file rename, and keyboard remapping (useful when using S…

I miss i3 on win - do you have a how-to for that? I use powertoys but only to tweak window layout a bit.

I just remapped the super-pagedn/up keys for window switching (only next/prev instead of hjkl). Otherwise I'm using i3 on Linux, and use Synergy to move between Windows, MacOS, and Linux so it helps to have as much between the three environments consistent.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#198

Post by snissn »

lovecg wrote: post #192

My contrarian take: I prefer to work from a small laptop, with a non-fullscreen terminal window, and no IDE. This forces me to understand the code I’m working on better - since I can’t see a lot of things at a glance, I got really good at juggling concepts in my working memory. I’ve read that visually challenged people who get really good at super fast text-to-speech almost acquire a super power of quick comprehensio…

https://xkcd.com/378/

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#199

Post by whatch »

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 Mac OS 13 inch display was quite comfortable for me (MacBook Air 2011). After that I tried 15 inch ubuntu ThinkPad and it was a lot less comfortable even when I set up virtual workspaces and hot keys for switching between them.

For me MacBook touchpad gestures for managing virtual desktops/workspaces is what makes the difference.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#200

Post by wruza »

MarkLowenstein wrote: post #153
vultour wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eizo makes a 1:1 26" 1920x1920 monitor. I've been tempted several times but the 1k price tag is keeping me off for now.

I've got one. 100% recommended. Bought mine at $1500. I'm not rich but I've never regretted this purchase.

Have you considered buying an nvidia card and 4k monitor of the same height (or width) and setting square resolution + cropping one/both edges?
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