I usually work from a Dutch angle because some code really has me cocking my head.
Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
261–270 of 426 posts
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#262Am 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…
I'm another dev who works off a 15/16" laptop. I've always thought it was because all OSs make switching back and forth between more than two applications without losing mental focus, difficult. Instead I've added utils and cfgs to help with that in OSX.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#263fools 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 promo…
Don't forget those us of old school guys. Everything should be displayed on paper. Changing fonts means physically changing the type. As everyone knows ed is the ultimate editor!
Now get off my lawn.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
woah thats bonkers! What do you do with all that real estate?
Pretty much the standard tools that most people have open all the time I guess. I just want to see them all all the time without having to constantly switch windows or hide the thing I'm working on. Music, messenger, Discord, Slack, 2 or 3 instances of my IDE, source control UI, a terminal or three, documentation for the thing I'm working on, notepad++
Dude. If you get the third row PLEASE take another picture and share it.
Your set up is magnificent.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#265Am 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 lar…
ed is the standard!
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#266I prefer to work with a single large external monitor. If my device is a laptop I keep it in clamshell mode when attached to an external monitor. I find switching applications with keyboard shortcuts and focusing on one thing at a time has improved my productivity. Using two or more monitors made it so easy for me to get distracted. To each their own though.
I use a 27” 4k monitor, in unscaled mode, but I use zoom heavily on macOS (Ctrl+Scroll Wheel) - with some extra scroll cruising setup with SteerMouse on my mouse. The lets me reduce the pixel to density to that if a much larger screen on-demand to help with my eyes a bit.
The one thing that I dearly miss from OS X going to linux, is the 'double tap to zoom on a text container' thing that simply doesn't appear to have an equivalent on linux. Being able to double tap and zoom up on text when I'm tired after a long day is very nice.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#267I prefer to work with a single large external monitor. If my device is a laptop I keep it in clamshell mode when attached to an external monitor. I find switching applications with keyboard shortcuts and focusing on one thing at a time has improved my productivity. Using two or more monitors made it so easy for me to get distracted. To each their own though.
It's funny how our brains work, eh? I find I'm the complete opposite. I need two monitors so things are right there in my face. I get distracted switching tabs. Thanks a lot ADHD.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe I'm not understanding what you want exactly, but it sounds like what i3 and Sway already do. Workspaces are created as needed and are specific to that monitor, so if workspace 3 is on the right monitor, you can jump to it with super-3 even if you're on the left monitor. You'd be looking at workspace 3 on the right monitor plus another workspace like 1 or 2 on the left. Each monitor displays a separate workspace…
Being able to select desktops/workspaces per screen is half the solution. The other half is allowing the selection to come from a pool of desktops/workspaces common to all screens. i.e. the opposite of what i3 and Sway do. So given desktops/workspaces a, b and c and screens 1 and 2, the following combinations are possible: 1: a; 2: b 1: a; 2: a 1: c; 2: a ...
I used to do stuff like this back in the day with Fvwm2, but less at the desktop level and more at the application level. You can set applications (windows really, and by title or id) to either be sticky to desktop or screen, etc. I had my mail client follow me no matter the virtual desktop I was on, but let other windows be anchored to the virtual desktop.
Honestly, I often miss Fvwm2 and my config in its power and simplicity, but Windows long ago became "good enough" and since the heavy apps I really care about (mail client, browser, maybe an IDE if I'm not using vim for the project) are cross platform (which they all are), as long as there's a good SSH client I'm good, and Windows Terminal plus built in OpenSSH shipped with windows works fairly well.
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#269I'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?
My wide one is in vertical centered with the tall ones, so the talls are above and below. It's rad, I could have a nice tie-fighter image fill it (if I used image background)
Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers
#270Am 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…
>who's perfectly okay with a single laptop monitor?
I do feel awfully constrained on a laptop monitor. My perfect setup is a laptop and 32" 4k monitor. Email and chat live on my laptop, split screened, and my ide and terminal or web browser live on the big screen.
Honestly? Half of my problem is that window management sucks on os x, but IT doesn't feel comfortable with me running linux.