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Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#801

Post by shaan7 »

ogre_codes wrote: post #648
renjimen wrote: post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You lost me right here on line 1. I'm on Windows and can confirm 1. is an issue. Windows lets users scale UIs to be readable at high DPI on small screens. Doesn't work on all UIs (e.g. QGIS). So maybe not all OS's, but two important ones. > You could say the same for any arbitrary DPI; 96dpi isn't "Required", we got by fine with 72dpi. It's all about ergonomics as far as I'm concerned. I think the point the parent…

> I think the point the parent is making is that human vision has limited resolution. If you can't see the difference between 4k and 1080p on a 24" monitor, then you probably need reading glasses. On a 27" monitor it's even worse. It's not so much that you can "see" the pixels, sub pixel rendering and anti-aliasing go a long way to making the actual blocky pixels go away, the difference is crisp letters versus blurry…

> then you probably need reading glasses

Maybe, just maybe, one could talk about how crisp text appears on 4k _without_ being rude.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#802

Post by mulmen »

kyberias wrote: post #773
mulmen wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My day job involves untangling SQL that was written under fire. I consume more spaghetti than a pre-covid Olive Garden. Every vertical pixel is precious for grokking what some sub query is doing in the context of the full statement.

Have you rotated your monitor 90 degrees to portrait already?

I used to when I ran dual 24" monitors! We had really sweet old IBM monitor stands that could tilt, raise and rotate. You had to be quick to grab them from the copy room before the electronics pickup. I swiped one from the still warm desk of a colleague on the way to their farewell happy hour.

So I had a '14 13"(? Might have been 15" but probably not) RMBP on the left with email and chat stuff, 24" main monitor in landscape and then another 24" monitor in portrait on the right. I think at some point I put a newer panel on the IBM mount. It was sweet.

Back then we still had desktop PCs at our actual desks so there was a KVM on the main monitor! What a time to be alive!

These days I do prefer a single monitor workflow if possible. It's just cleaner and move convenient.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#803

Post by gherkinnn »

fouric wrote: post #146
compscistd wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like HN as a whole want blogs to come back, and part of that is well written exposition (the technical details) followed by near-outlandish opinions that tend to generate discussion. It's more fun, it leads to more conversation (here we are!), and clarifies our own values. I think three monitors is distracting, but that whole community discussion gave me the opportunity to compare how I use a multi-monitor set…

> I think three monitors is distracting Could you elaborate on this? Specifically, do you feel that having three/multiple monitors is necessarily distracting (no matter what you do with them) or just encourages distraction? My experience is the latter, and that if I am disciplined and only put windows from one task at a time on all three, then I have no more temptation to be distracted than I usually have at my inter…

As for me, three monitors is just too much information. There's no thing I do that requires me to see so many things at once. I do make extensive use of virtual desktops instead.

I like one large 4k monitor right in front of me, and the window manager is set to allow splitting windows in thirds. Laptop off to the side with music, terminal, and other auxiliary stuff.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#804

Post by [deleted] »

valuearb wrote: post #556
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 outw…

[deleted]

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#805

Post by submeta »

> notebooks are not good for development. They are great in mobility and convenience, and this argument might outweigh everything else for some people. I accept that. But still, a desktop monitor + external keyboard are always better than a notebook.

This!

I can‘t understand how some folks can make dev work with the display of their laptop alone, without an external monitor. And then the trend of trying to setup the ipad pro as the sole working environment, with an external keyboard and a trackpad. Watching those (youtube stars) trying hard to make the setup work, them looking down on a tiny screen, the angle alone! We have had much better setups for years, why giving up on this to work with an inferior setup.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#806

Post by mulmen »

TylerE wrote: post #741
hadlock wrote: post #579

Earlier quoted context omitted.

27" x 1440p has been my go-to for a while now. Works well without scaling between win/mac/linux, does not dominate the desk completely, high quality monitors are readily available in this resolution etc etc.

I think my dream set up would be a 27" 1440P (What I currently have at home, with a pair of smaller (19" maybe?) 1080p screens on either side setup in portrait. Basically a similar screen area to 2x27", but without a bezel right in the center of my field of view, and the 1080x1920 screens will be a good size for displaying full page (e.g. PDF) at more or less full screen.

At that point not just run an Ultrawide at 1440p?

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#807

Post by dingaling »

valuearb wrote: post #556
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 outw…

> It will cost you less than $300 a year

Don't forget the cost of buying a new computer that can drive that display.

None of our laptops even have DisplayPort outputs let alone sufficient onboard graphics for that resolution.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#808

Post by teekert »

submeta wrote: post #805

> notebooks are not good for development. They are great in mobility and convenience, and this argument might outweigh everything else for some people. I accept that. But still, a desktop monitor + external keyboard are always better than a notebook. This! I can‘t understand how some folks can make dev work with the display of their laptop alone, without an external monitor. And then the trend of trying to setup the…

Indeed, and more screens is even better! Ideally I would never need alt-tab anymore. I'm still waiting for a VR workspace, screen everywhere, eyes are then focused on infinity, so that's also better.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#809

Post by CaptainMarvel »

mulmen wrote: post #392
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.

How do you manage multiple monitors with MacOS? I was doing this until recently and every single login involved rearranging my windows because MacOS moves them all to whatever display woke up first. In my experience MacOS multi-monitor support is effectively non-existent. Recently I picked up a 49” ultra-ultra wide monitor (basically 2x27” panels). It is one monitor but MacOS can’t drive it. They just don’t detect th…

I was able to use a 5120x1440 resolution on my MacBook Pro using SwitchResX. No idea why Mac OS doesn’t let you select that resolution.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#810

Post by kovek »

submeta wrote: post #805

> notebooks are not good for development. They are great in mobility and convenience, and this argument might outweigh everything else for some people. I accept that. But still, a desktop monitor + external keyboard are always better than a notebook. This! I can‘t understand how some folks can make dev work with the display of their laptop alone, without an external monitor. And then the trend of trying to setup the…

RE notebooks vs monitor+keyboard. I have a work macbook, a personal macbook, and a personal thinkpad. I keep work context on the work laptop, one personal project context (ui dev) on my macbook, and one personal project context (backend dev) on my thinkpad.

I really like that context switching is a physical experience, which feels much more intuitive, concrete and solid as in "it works". I don't have to open/close tabs, do cmd-tab or maybe ctrl-tab to find the right window, or switch to another digital workspace to switch to the other context.

Additionally, those devices being laptops allows me to use them almost anywhere under battery. Whenever I put a sweater under them, I can get them in a comfortable position. Managing multiple tiled windows on one screen is overhead, and so I am fine focusing on one window at a time, and so I am able to show slightly larger font which means I don't have to squint of bend forward too much.

I do think it would be nice if I had slightly larger screens.

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