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Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

sprocketfox.io

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Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#331

Post by zzzzzzzza »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #317
mgraczyk wrote: post #155

This is interesting but the author considers only one degree of freedom, "roll". Equally important are "pitch" and "yaw". "pitch" is necessary to accommodate another kind of rotation, known in HCI as "slouch". "yaw" is important because sometimes your code is so elegant and impressive, that you need people walking by to see it more than you need to see it yourself. You use yaw to rotate your monitor away, toward the…

I know that you are writing in jest, but the very concept that any amount of slouching is tolerable to someone in this profession should be outrageous. We spend decades deforming our backs to sit in chairs. The least we can do is to promote the idea of an international "Insufficiently Ergonomic Office Chair Bonfire Day".

chairs are the past. couches are the future. slouch away.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#332

Post by jacobolus »

mgraczyk wrote: post #155

This is interesting but the author considers only one degree of freedom, "roll". Equally important are "pitch" and "yaw". "pitch" is necessary to accommodate another kind of rotation, known in HCI as "slouch". "yaw" is important because sometimes your code is so elegant and impressive, that you need people walking by to see it more than you need to see it yourself. You use yaw to rotate your monitor away, toward the…

"Pitch" is actually a useful rotation. Displays should be placed as far away as practical, with their top edge roughly at eye level, and tilted so that the bottom of the display is closer to the body than the top. Eyes have an easier time both focusing and converging closer in the bottom part of the field of view.

Viewers should sit up, with their backs and necks straight and plumb, and look around at different parts of the display by moving the eyes rather than tilting the head.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#333

Post by Jonovono »

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…

Same, I do a lot of my work on a 13 inch macbook air ;p

Some tasks I like to be able to have more monitors, but that's becoming less and less.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#334

Post by StillBored »

Since the advent of 16:10/16:12 monitors I've pretty much done the 3 monitor thing. One in landscape, and two in portrait. The two vertical ones get dedicated as an emacs monitor, and the second as a "docs" and status monitor. Usually running acrobat or a single browser window with an audio, or system status window pinned on top in an unobtrusive location. The single landscape monitor gets pretty much everything else, email, chat apps, xterms, etc, etc.

Once in a while, the docs monitor will get replaced with a giant log/debug window, but that is pretty rare.

So, I guess its a bit odd, but recently I started mapping the emacs and acroread with dedicated monitors to a hotkey so I can immediately switch back to them without the alt-tab cycling. So I have a really hard time understanding people with tiling window managers, or running on single screens. That might be the problem with the setup, because trying to use a laptop in a coffee shop is mostly impossible.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#335

Post by haimez »

tomxor wrote: post #319
cogburnd02 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, unless you're working in the leaning tower of Pisa, I can't imagine any change of tilt would be in any way useful.

An unmodified desk could have up to 3 inches of difference in height end to end, but to be fair the warped floors contributed to this more than the building structure. > I can't imagine any change of tilt would be in any way useful. It was somewhat useful for ball games.

I can confirm. Currently dealing with a lot of post WFH era back issues which commenced shortly after working all day from my 1890 construction brownstone apartment. The floor warping is real.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#336

Post by BbzzbB »

wffurr wrote: post #265
throw10920 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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!

Didn't get the answer I was looking for when searching for 'ed'. Well, I found it after adding a word, but got a chuckle first.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#337

Post by zaptheimpaler »

nsonha wrote: post #330
zaptheimpaler wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes but unfortunately that doesn't really work for heavy applications today. That would mean like 50 independent memory-hungry firefox or IDE processes corresponding to every tab/file you might have open. The entire point is to decouple a window from the resources/host process that controls the window.

multiple browser windows are not different resource-wise than multiple tabs, you are still running against same instance of the browser. The other benefit of leaving window (and tab) managerment to the OS is that tabs switching should also better, imagine your tabs show up in the OS switcher and you can look them up in spotlight or something.

Oh wow i guess i should really try this "window" thing then. I am dumb lol. Thank you for all the replies here.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#338

Post by samplatt »

OJFord wrote: post #327
smoyer wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sit with your butt on the edge of your chair (don't use the back rest at all) ... Your back will be naturally straight and your core muscles will gain endurance. I learned this by using an exercise ball as a chair for six months.

That's nonsense, I'm perfectly capable of slouching without the assistance of a back rest.

Op must have an iron rod for a spine. I naturally slouch lying down. Cats are less fluid than my posture at 4pm-second-wind, two-screens-of-code-and-one-of-data full-crunch-engaged mode.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#339

Post by zeusk »

rzzzt wrote: post #302
danvillalon wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows has PowerToys [1] with the tool FancyZones, I've used it daily for a while and in general works pretty well, it's customizable and I use it to setup "zones" for working and splitting my tools into predefined spaces on muy screens. [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

FancyZones has no power over Task Manager, it is too strong!

Have you tried starting PowerToys as admin?

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#340

Post by BbzzbB »

teejmya wrote: post #281
0des wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool! Any chance you can post a pic of your desk? I'd love to see this

If anyone else enjoys pictures of these setups as much as I do, you may enjoy browsing this subreddit: https://reddpics.com/r/ultimatebattlestation

Neat website, unfortunate there is no sorting option or a way to port in your account's feed (I think?).
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