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The Road Coder's Survival Kit

twilio.com

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Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#21

Post by doorhammer »

pedalpete wrote: post #2

I was really hoping for stuff that makes you more effective at coding while on the road. I find my productivity takes a serious hit when I'm moved from my 27" monitor +12" laptop screen to just my laptop screen. Any suggestions for this?

I use my ipad as a second monitor occasionally, using air display. It works well to throw a browser up on and test. Or, even if you don't use air display, as long as you're okay with the mobile browser for the testing, you can set up a local network, and just navigate to the test address.

It's not ideal, but it's nice.

I find the size of my multiple monitor setup is less a concern than being able to mentally divide tasks/contexts. ymmv

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#22

Post by JshWright »

jmspring wrote: post #11
pedalpete wrote: post #2

I was really hoping for stuff that makes you more effective at coding while on the road. I find my productivity takes a serious hit when I'm moved from my 27" monitor +12" laptop screen to just my laptop screen. Any suggestions for this?

Virtual desktops are a big help. If you have the space, moving any reference querying over to a tablet (iPad, etc) is one trick I use. Actually, the biggest use for my iPad is as a reference book.

I tried that, but found the inability to copy/paste between the reference and my text editor was annoying...

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#23

Post by jefurii »

serf wrote: post #6
pedalpete wrote: post #2

I was really hoping for stuff that makes you more effective at coding while on the road. I find my productivity takes a serious hit when I'm moved from my 27" monitor +12" laptop screen to just my laptop screen. Any suggestions for this?

that's exactly why I hope the oculus rift takes off and offers some high res models suitable for that kind of work in the future.

CastAR sounds like it might make a cool dev environment. Hang up the reflective material, put on the glasses, and you've got a screen. Doesn't block everything else out the way the Oculus does. http://technicalillusions.com/castar/

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#24

Post by mahyarm »

fishtoaster wrote: post #13
pedalpete wrote: post #2

I was really hoping for stuff that makes you more effective at coding while on the road. I find my productivity takes a serious hit when I'm moved from my 27" monitor +12" laptop screen to just my laptop screen. Any suggestions for this?

Honestly? Do it more often. At my last startup, we all worked from our laptops with no external monitors. I got used to it after a few weeks, and found myself able to work fine like that for 2 years. When I switched jobs and finally had access to a huge apple cinema display, it felt way too big. What do I need all this space for? Of course, I got used to that after a couple weeks, and now I have a hard time coding wh…

Another part of it is what your software is designed for. I honestly think xcode 5 was designed for 27" 1440p displays. I was always frustrated with xcode on a 1080p display until I moved to a 1440p display with it.

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#26

Post by fishtoaster »

mahyarm wrote: post #24
fishtoaster wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly? Do it more often. At my last startup, we all worked from our laptops with no external monitors. I got used to it after a few weeks, and found myself able to work fine like that for 2 years. When I switched jobs and finally had access to a huge apple cinema display, it felt way too big. What do I need all this space for? Of course, I got used to that after a couple weeks, and now I have a hard time coding wh…

Another part of it is what your software is designed for. I honestly think xcode 5 was designed for 27" 1440p displays. I was always frustrated with xcode on a 1080p display until I moved to a 1440p display with it.

Good point. I do almost all of my work in vim or a terminal, which maximize my text-editing space. I could see feeling cramped in an IDE with lots of side displays and menus.

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#27

Post by jmspring »

JshWright wrote: post #22
jmspring wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtual desktops are a big help. If you have the space, moving any reference querying over to a tablet (iPad, etc) is one trick I use. Actually, the biggest use for my iPad is as a reference book.

I tried that, but found the inability to copy/paste between the reference and my text editor was annoying...

I typically use sshfs to the VM for interpreted languages. Or fabric scripts to deploy source.

Re: The Road Coder's Survival Kit

#28

Post by serf »

jefurii wrote: post #23
serf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's exactly why I hope the oculus rift takes off and offers some high res models suitable for that kind of work in the future.

CastAR sounds like it might make a cool dev environment. Hang up the reflective material, put on the glasses, and you've got a screen. Doesn't block everything else out the way the Oculus does. http://technicalillusions.com/castar/

in my fantasy world I have a computer (a laptop or maybe just a processing unit of some sort) plus something like an oculus with many cameras on it .

When I am busy, I shut off the world and get distraction-free. When I want to interact with others I composite the real world atop my VR world from the cameras, without ever lifting the headset.

Ghost in the Shell but much simpler.

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