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Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#551

Post by semi-extrinsic »

gorgoiler wrote: post #291
semi-extrinsic wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, my main monitor is a 43" 4k display, and it works perfectly fine on AwesomeWM - but I' don't use any scaling, the 4k is purely for more screen real estate - literally like having 4 perfectly aligned borderless 24" monitors. I can fit 10 full A4 pages of text simultaneously.

Which display in particular are you recommending, and what is the latency like?

I've only seriously tested the Dell P4317Q that I have in the office. Others have had good success with small 4k TVs. Can't say I've noticed anything about the latency, but I've never gamed or watched movies on it, so IDK

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#552

Post by logicprog »

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

My laptop has a 4K screen, but I switch to an external 27" QHD (2560x1440) display when I'm at my desk and boy ... I used to like that external monitor. Now all I can see, all I notice, is how much worse and more pixelated text looks on it than when I'm reading on the laptop's screen. It practically looks blurry!

So yeah, nobody needs a 4K display. But I would think most people don't know what they're missing. (:

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#553

Post by _ph_ »

ithkuil wrote: post #532
JohnBooty wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely have zero regrets about the Dell. Some of the best money I've ever spent. Depending on font choice (typically I use Input Mono Compressed) I can fit six or seven 80x100 text windows side-by-side on the Dell with excellent legibility. I can't imagine anybody justifying the cost of that 32" Apple display for coding either. I can't even imagine many high-end creative professionals justifying that. I mean, o…

Which model is "that dell"?

The Dell 3818 the parent poster named.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#554

Post by cocoa19 »

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

Funny you said that about Jeff. I read his article just recently and also happened to use three monitors in my office for a while.

I started developing neck pain, so I had to go back to one.

At least buying a 4k/120hz monitor is not painful to your body, only your wallet.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#555

Post by monadic2 »

namdnay wrote: post #460
auggierose wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are on macOS, all is good. Never had a problem with any of my 4 monitors (3x4K, 1x5K). I set the scaling to a size I like, and the text is super crisp. I don't see how any programmer can NOT like that.

I’d say all is bad with MacOS and external monitors... It can’t manage text scaling like Windows, so you either have to downscale resolution and get everything blurry or keep the ridiculously high native resolution and have everything tiny :(

Is it not visible for you in the displays settings? You DO need all the monitors to have the same DPI or you’d have a window rendered half in one dpi and half in another when dragging across a display boundary.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#556

Post by valuearb »

the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

We used to write great code on the original Mac’s 512 by 384 screen, doesn’t mean we were very productive at it.

A 5K monitor allows you to view an enormous set of workspaces and code, and sharply. It will cost you less than $300 a year, which for any decent developer is less than 1/2 of 1% of your annual revenues (and its tax deductible for contractors!).

There is no way the increase on productivity doesn’t far outweigh that cost.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#557

Post by _ph_ »

JohnBooty wrote: post #498
_ph_ wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That Dell would be the screen I would buy right now for coding. I am currently using a 5k iMac at home and a 30" Dell (2560x1600) at work. I really loved the resolution of the iMac, but for my work, I need screen estate. The font rendering on the 30" at 1x scaling is good enough, and having a lot of screen estate is essential for me. Having 50% more horizontal space would of course be great :). The new 32" Apple disp…

I definitely have zero regrets about the Dell. Some of the best money I've ever spent. Depending on font choice (typically I use Input Mono Compressed) I can fit six or seven 80x100 text windows side-by-side on the Dell with excellent legibility. I can't imagine anybody justifying the cost of that 32" Apple display for coding either. I can't even imagine many high-end creative professionals justifying that. I mean, o…

The funny thing is, I would even think about the 32" Apple display, if Apple made a computer to go with it. But the new Mac Pro at the entry price is 2x of its predecessor and really not a great computer at the entry level specs. It is amazing fully loaded, but I would rather get a Tesla :p. Not sure how well the 32" Apple is supported by Linux :).

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#558

Post by [deleted] »

dsabanin wrote: post #131
the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

I love my 3 monitor setup. In 20 years of coding, I finally reached peak productivity in my workspace. No switching between windows, ease of throwing a window aside for monitoring, laying out information and tools side to side. It’s incredible once you readjust your habits and learn to use that new space. I compare it to having a large, wide desk when you’re working on something. Who wouldn’t want that? I was one of…

[deleted]

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#559

Post by SubuSS »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #137
the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

> Some people might like them, [some] won't. By 'like them' are you talking about the full set of tradeoffs, or the raw visuals? Because I'd be very surprised if someone actually disliked how an all-else-equal 4K screen looks, compared to 1080.

At least for me - I had a cheap 4k monitor. Managing the size of fonts / windows on it vs the connected laptop was a pita. Not to mention the display /graphics card overloading and glitching once in a while trying to power everything.

So I am still stuck with my regular HD monitor + laptop monitor - which is pretty good.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#560

Post by M5x7wI3CmbEem10 »

Waterluvian wrote: post #86

I've found my journey through tooling evolution to be fascinating (to me at least). When I was new and coding was slow, my worries were about so many other things (like how the language even worked) than even what text editor I used, let alone the monitor. As I became experienced, a lot of newbie problems went away and the next topmost problems emerged, leading to be obsessing over text editor, shortcuts, and even a…

how do you build your projects using VSCode if you don’t mind me asking?
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