Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

sprocketfox.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 426 posts

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#391

Post by [deleted] »

mathgladiator wrote: post #307
glitchc wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could stretch the "yaw" into a "yawn" which is the typical response when you showcase your elegant and impressive code to family and friends.

Sir, you wound me deeply... yet you speak truth. When I was younger, I'd write code and print it out to share with friends and family with the most disappointing looks returned. Honestly, I have no idea why and how I have persisted in this field for so long given how isolating it can be. Even now, I am writing my own programming language (for board games), and I've run into the sales/marketing problem head-on.

[deleted]

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#392

Post by fleaaa »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #152
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

You'll have to excuse the mess :) https://imgur.com/a/5uTm7VB Also obviously I hid all the proprietary stuff.

This is a beautiful desk setup. Do you prefer having the gaps in between?

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#393

Post by lloeki »

kbenson wrote: post #55
gboss wrote: post #20

I 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.

When I ran multiple monitors I often designated one as my "communication" display, which got email/chat on it, and probably browser as well (for reference material), while the other was the active work one with the current task (usually a few terminals). I found the clearly defines areas for specific tasks was useful. Now I work off a 40" 4k TV without magnification (I'm close to it), and I try to do similar but it's…

> maximizing to fill the whole screen makes less and less sense

I guess that was the point of having "windows" in the first place. Per TFA:

> Websites and documents usually end up with a lot of whitespace and padding around them

This only happens if you needlessly maximise; windows are supposed to fit their content, not their container†. (Yes I realise that the article is in jest, yet I see so many people complaining about "poor app/web design" when all you need to do is not maximise on a wide enough screen. I smell Horror Vacui[0])

> When I ran multiple monitors I often designated one

In my case this ends up with me having a single screen for work and the other(s) mostly unused††; the ROI of the extra screen(s) thus drops extremely quickly. With a typical two-screen symmetric setup this also means my head/eyes have a constant bias in one direction, which means RSI quite quickly. Plus having things ever so slightly move in my peripheral vision triggers my reptilian emergency reflexes which goes contra to the goal of focusing.

I've noticed that "maximisers" are typically using two or more screens as they would use windows. To be fair I'm not bashing on "maximisers" at all, I just view the thing as with coffee: there are the dippers and the non-dippers, and to each his own, but when I see people arguing/complaining I'd rather point out that they should use a setup matching their preference and not try to force others into some "enlightenment".

I do blame (in jest) the "maximiser" mindset for the flurry of apps with huge "content" that basically forces you to maximise yet end up reinventing ad-hoc window management inside the app, only poorly and inconsistently.

† Which is the default behaviour of the "maximise" (a.k.a "zoom" in Apple HIG parlance) green plus traffic light on macOS, that you now have to reach to with Option.

†† The only use case I found possibly interesting is looking at documentation over there, which in practice I found equally efficient to have on either a separate virtual desktop, or on an iPad.

[0]: http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2014/11/11/horror_vacui/

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#394

Post by lovelyviking »

terramex wrote: post #274
lovelyviking wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PWM Flickering would be one reason? On M1 Air there is pwm flickering which makes impossible to work with it ... thanks Apple. [0] I would connect external monitor but it has flickering issues with them too. Thanks Apple again. [1] [0] https://www.notebookcheck.net/PWM-Ranking-Notebooks-Smartpho... [1] https://piunikaweb.com/2021/01/08/apple-investigating-mac-mi...

> On M1 Air there is pwm flickering which makes impossible to work with it According to table you linked M1 Air has PWM frequency of almost 120 kHz, which very high and well above headache and eye strain inducing frequencies.

According to my doctor and my eyes state since I've started using M1 air it doesn't matter which frequency was used by the idiot who decided that PWM is a good idea to regulate brightness of the monitor.

Also there is 60Hz flickering that doesn't go away with any brightness level.

I think it is especially bright idea to design a working monitor and then spoil it with PWM rendering it unusable. I personally consider it as a fraud and the essence of disrespecting people.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#395

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #388
Abishek_Muthian wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Off-topic > 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. Would you be interested in a tool which reminds you to take a walk at regular intervals without any action from you when you're seated and immersed with work? I'm trying to validate the need to refine and make my 'Butt Pomodoro'[1] more a…

I was literally just thinking about something like this yesterday evening. Normally I let my empty tea/coffee/water/"need to go to the bathroom" remind me to get up, but that is super unreliable, of course. I was contemplating some bracelet/rfid reader that didn't let me stay in my desk chair for too long before alerting me.

I'm surprised that the button-switch under butt pillow worked as well as it did in my setup, I've been using it for over a year but I've made the software-setup unnecessarily complicated and so I'm rewriting it to be a single module with some bells and whistles.

RFID bracelet would work too, But I wanted my setup completely unattended. Please send me an email if you'd like to be updated about rebuild of Butt Pomodoro.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#396

Post by lovelyviking »

withinboredom wrote: post #239
lovelyviking wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PWM Flickering would be one reason? On M1 Air there is pwm flickering which makes impossible to work with it ... thanks Apple. [0] I would connect external monitor but it has flickering issues with them too. Thanks Apple again. [1] [0] https://www.notebookcheck.net/PWM-Ranking-Notebooks-Smartpho... [1] https://piunikaweb.com/2021/01/08/apple-investigating-mac-mi...

I’ve found turning the brightness up all the way to help with that immensely.

I've found it too but then the usage of it brings some limitations you know and basically makes it unusable as laptop.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#398

Post by maydup-nem »

maydup-nem wrote: post #397

> Longest line length! > like a thousand fucking characters can't wait to enjoy this on my 14" screen > pesky 80 column limit that pesky limit is there to protect my sanity against shitcoders (which some are forced to be in shit languages) so, please no

what's with the downvote, did I just harass a shitcoder?

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#399

Post by vbezhenar »

RHSeeger wrote: post #46
Cerium wrote: post #43

Why do people complain about wasted white space on the side of their windows? Who said you have to full-screen every application? My slack window is about 1/3 of a screen, zoom a bit smaller, Firefox about 2/3 of a screen, Outlook about 2/3. I think the only window I regularly make full size is the terminal.

This is exactly what I was thinking. > Websites and documents usually end up with a lot of whitespace and padding around them I can't imagine have _any_ window full width on a large screen. I have 5 windows visible on my primary screen right now, and that's not even a lot for me. The browser, at max, is about 60% of the screen's width.

I'm not comfortable with tiny text. I'm using 27" display and with my IDE full screen I can fit around 140 characters. HN is with 250% zoom and around 80% of browser width right now.

Using those 14" displays is like using a phone, absolutely atrocious.

Re: Ideal Monitor Rotation for Programmers

#400

Post by lovelyviking »

irrational wrote: post #341

I have 2 32" monitors ( https://www.samsung.com/us/business/computing/monitors/uhd-a... ) rotated 90 degrees (vertical). I became the "Oh, you're the guy with the two tall monitors!" guy at work. I like it because you can see so much code all at once. It is rare that the lines of code are so long that they go off the screen. I typically have the code full screen on the left monitor (well, I usually have a terminal wi…

I went to check this link you've provided: (https://www.samsung.com/us/business/computing/monitors/uhd-a...)

Wow you press Specs and the site scrolls to the Specifications section which is empty. Such an example of respect from Samsung. Amazing ...

Post reply on HN