I don't get it. Well I understand how 2 monitors will benefit programmers, but 3? What do you all do with 3 monitors? 1 with the log file, 1 with the app, 1 with the coding?
Kindly enlighten me.
A:
- Monitor 1: Visual Studio main window.
- Monitor 2: Solution + Server explorers, TODO's, Error list, Code Definition window
- Monitor 3: Reference documents, or more VS windows
I have six (pics). I also have:
- Monitor 3: Reference documents
- Monitor 4: more VS windows
- Monitor 5: Full-screen video
- Monitor 6: Taskbar, E-mail, IM, etc.
tsilb
2009-03-09 03:53:39
6. That's riduclous. How many eyes do you have? :)
Mitch Wheat
2009-03-09 03:54:18
I ensure the six are all mostly-within my cone of focus. THe current setup has proven over time to reduce neck movement.
tsilb
2009-03-09 03:55:26
huh? It's trivial to have 6 desktops and one monitor with a keystroke to switch between them. That's proven to reduce neck movement.
postfuturist
2009-03-09 03:57:35
i agree 6 is overkill, but 3 monitors _with_ virtual desktops is not a bad setup.
Brandon Thomson
2009-03-09 04:00:55
@tsilb: since when is neck movement bad?
Mitch Wheat
2009-03-09 04:02:41
@tsilb: According to your site you are a "God amongst developers." That's quite a claim.
Mitch Wheat
2009-03-09 04:04:13
@tsilb: if that 6 monitor setup is the one you are referring to, you must have the world's largest cone of focus!!
Mitch Wheat
2009-03-09 04:05:36
would you rather be a god amongst developers, or a developer amongst gods?
Brandon Thomson
2009-03-09 04:07:28
Too much neck turning for me.
Loren Pechtel
2009-03-09 04:11:29
@Steveh45: Meh, the second row is only about 10 degrees movement away.@Mitch Wheat: I used to have one row of 6. Rotating 180 degrees gets old, fast.@Brandon: I suppose I'd prefer the latter; as any being capable of developing Gods would have to be even more powerful itself.
tsilb
2009-03-09 04:33:10
My purchase request for this always got denied: http://www.digitaltigers.com/zenview-arenaultraelite.asp
JoshBerke
2009-03-09 04:39:09
+1
A:
Your answer is right here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/99846/three-monitors
vmarquez
2009-03-09 03:55:00
In all seriousness, I like two for "work", and the third for "whatever", which includes mail, MSN, and other stuff that's best left out of peripheral vision.
Arafangion
2009-03-09 05:23:06
+6
A:
Believe it or not you can get a lot of value out of 2-3 monitors and 9-16 virtual desktops. The idea is that instead of doing window management, you just leave all your windows open and arranged all the time and then switch between "desktop environments" when you need to "context switch" from one project or workflow to another.
So for a web development project you might have one virtual desktop with:
- Monitor 1: VIM
- Monitor 2: Firefox
- Monitor 3: xterms, other misc stuff
On another virtual desktop you might have Photoshop and GIMP and some other image tools. And on another desktop you might have another instance of firefox for fun and irc and your chat sessions.
There's really no reason not to work this way these days since we're in the era of 8GB of ram for $80 or less. Just leave everything open and in ram all the time, why not?
Here's what my 2 monitor/9 vdesk setup looks like at the moment... image shrunk to protect the innocent. I'd love to get a third monitor if I could afford it.
Brandon Thomson
2009-03-09 03:59:58
"why not?" - because my machine only supports 3.5Gb of RAM and I'm already abusing that with 4 instances of Visual Studio...
Pat
2009-03-10 03:01:14
thats what you get for picking a bloated IDE? lol? (gvim uses about 10MB/instance)
Brandon Thomson
2009-03-10 05:04:13
Wow. How do you not get lost with all those different contexts? I wouldn't remember what desktop has what on it...do you use compiz or something, or an application of some kind to kind of "zoom out" and look at all the virtual desktops at the same time?
Robyn Smith
2009-08-14 15:10:23
After a week of working like this you'll remember, guaranteed. the commands to switch workspaces go into your muscle memory and you stop thinking about it at all.
Brandon Thomson
2009-08-27 20:51:59
A:
Right now,
- Monitor 1: Web browser for reading documentation. Never even attempted to memorize standard libraries. whats the point?
- Monitor 2: Teh Codes
- Montior 3: Few command shells, git-gui, file browser.
Could use about infinity more monitors for browser windows, and about infinity more for source listing. So that means I need 2*inf monitors....
TokenMacGuy
2009-03-09 04:02:39
"Whats the point?" Only good for white board exercises in interviews. :)
jeffamaphone
2009-03-09 04:08:18
A:
Generally for me it's the IDE on one, the form on another and a third for help, web pages etc.
Loren Pechtel
2009-03-09 04:10:48
A:
Main/Middle Monitor: Visual Studio/Code
Left Monitor: docs (local msdn, api docs), Other instances of Visual Studio/code
Right Monitor: build output, log files, App/Executable when debugging painting or mouse handling issues that don't play nice on the same screen as the debugger
That being said, going from 1 monitor to 2 is IMHO the biggest bang. The 3rd is handy, definitely helps but is not as big an improvement as the transition from 1 to 2. I'd hate to have to go back to 1 monitor.
Arnshea
2009-03-09 04:13:46
A:
I use three quite often. Here's a common distribution:
- Browser
- Code IDE
- SQL DB Management tool(s)
I also frequently toggle these with Outlook and Remote Desktop.
Ian Suttle
2009-03-09 04:32:55
A:
Honestly, my second monitor is in the cupboard and will probably get sold soon. I find it more of an annoyance than it's worth and it basically feels like a waste of electricity.
I've come to the conclusion that it's little more than a measurement of a person's ego.
Buy the biggest, highest-resolution monitor you can afford (and that fits on your desk) and be happy.
Damien
2009-03-09 04:43:04
A:
I actually use four monitors.
- SQL Server, FF, VStudio
- SQL Server, FF, VStudio
- IM, Twitter, etc
mrdenny
2009-03-09 07:36:26
A:
My 3rd and 4th monitors for Email, Twitter/TweetDeck, IM, WeatherBug, Pandora, FeedDemon and a TV tuner card are actually two additional computers both connected to the main keyboard and mouse using Synergy.
This helps me by offloading some of the cpu-intensive stuff.
And, it's just plain show-off geeky-cool :)
Distractions? I considered that at first, but I believe I spend less time dealing with the distractions. They go by like brief news ticker items and I think I actually filter out the junk faster by having a "queue" of important stuff in mind when it's time to deal with the messages or articles.
As for Pandora, listening to music while writing code is a whole other set of questions...
Doug L.
2009-03-09 11:34:11