I prefer a single monitor not just because it's more convenient, but because it really does improve focus. My screen represents my train of thought. I don't have 3 applications and 4+ files splattered in front of me. I have a single application, with no more than 2 files, that represents exactly where I am at that moment in my thinking. And I move from screen to screen fluidly with Spaces. I also use a large font size so I don't see more than 40 LOC on the screen at a time.
This is not some sort of self-imposed hipster handicap like a fixed gear bicycle- it really does feel more comfortable. I get so frustrated looking at coworkers' screens with 4+ files open, all in tiny text. I think, how can they work like that? No wonder that when someone interrupts them they lose all context.
OTOH, click targets on the wrong screen are torture.
I spend all my desk time on a multi-screen setup, with the built-in screen and a big monitor on its side. Having program launchers and a taskbar (or dock) on a specific screen is not as bad, but having to click on something on screen 1 to do something with a window on screen 2 is just painful.
I get big screens but multiple screens gives diminished returns vs tab/spaces switching. Laying out the windows across different screens is always a pain in the ass
The lack on Windows of quick keyboard shortcut access to multiple open buffers and virtual desktops make multiple monitors seem important. Navigating by alt-tab and with the mouse is just too slow. In the X11 world the other buffer/virtual desktop/screen of stuff you want to see is one or two key presses away.
I have never felt a big benefit from multiple monitors, or even especially big monitors. 95% of the time I'm working with text, and I can only comprehend one window of text at a time. As long as I can flit around between multiple buffers, tabs, or desktops without my hands leaving the keyboard I'm fine.
I’m getting there, but I stil need to share a actual screen in my workflow, and keep a screen private. I want to pass windows around without registering them and the laptop screen is too small.
But really I get the sentiment. A well organized high resolution single screen can be sufficient
I’m only using side displays for logs or something I don’t need to refer to often and can see by side vision. Same for large “viewport” angles like tv right in front of me. Can’t stand turning my head or reading at an angle (even if it’s good-angle ips). However you arrange your screens, the field of your effective sight remains the same.
Multiple displays is just a physical solution to the core issue: desktop window managers and software and hardware suck. You can’t have an event-transparent overlay of a compiler/runtime output over your ui testing area, you can’t have windows that slide in from the side on a hotkey or a click, showing quick status when “holstered”. You can’t reveal/popup a window when text in it matches a regex. You can’t assign a hotkey to a browser tab. You can’t custom-dpi a specific window. You can’t have drawers with links in them that are already preloaded and ready to refer to. You can’t have a special set of keys to launch, raise or shift windows temporarily. You can’t scroll on a keyboard. It’s all stupid and fixed even with advanced WMs, or requires programming comparable with creating a new WM and most apps from scratch. And it’s always arcane combination of two-three-four keys, most of which live in rural areas of your keyboard.
Funny thing is, 3d games figured it out with huds, OSD messages, consoles, choice wheels, trivial panning, zooming and movement, “physical” buttons and switches, and 3d itself.
but it's wrong to generalize it as a solution for everyone
This is the fundamental flaw in virtually all quick-fix lifehack kind of pieces -- they project personal habits and failings generally, and then make broad claims about how to fix their own issues. It is the alcoholic telling you not to keep alcoholic beverages in your house.
I feel absolutely claustrophobic on a laptop with but a single work surface. And it isn't because I need multiple unrelated things fighting for my attention, but instead because I need maximal information for the singular thing I am working on. The flow of using all of the pieces of information is much higher -- for me -- when I don't need to task shift, shroud other pieces of information, and so on.
Docs/requirements/protocol specs on one screen, IDE on the other at the minimum. Realistically I usually like the IDE itself on multiple screens, inspector/project structure/source management on one, text editor on the other. Sometimes I split the text editor across multiple screens.
But that's personal habit. As mentioned I find working on a laptop absolutely crippling, though I have no doubt that there are people for whom it is ideal.
Agreed, development on a single monitor is grossly inefficient for me if I'm doing any sort of serious work. It drives me nuts when I have to pair program with someone who doesn't use multiple monitors, or doesn't utilize multiple monitors effectively. Every time you switch a screen from one app to the other adds friction to your workflow in the form of keypresses and mentally keeping track of context. The more of your workspace can be laid out at once, the less friction there is and the more effort can be devoted to the work itself.
Computers have become an "everything machine", to do everything you want, you need multiple windows.
However, things are changing. Consumers have realised that it is more productive to use a tool to carry out a particular task and get the job done.
They are fed up of having to wait for their PC to boot, do any updates, fix any problems and try and remember the original task they wanted to do. It's no longer acceptable. That's even before we mention the confusion of having multiple windows (think grandma).
People now expect things to happen instantly so they can use a device as a tool to carry out a single task. (ie: I need check my bank account - switch on device, open banking app, check account, turn device off).
This type of paradigm shift means that not only do people no longer need multiple windows, they have realised they no longer want them either.
Not only that, but as we get more and more smart devices, we don't need or want multiple windows as we'll have multiple devices instead.
> Although mostly single window, multiple screens kind of person myself
I'm the same way myself. I will say that even with multiple monitors "Metro" (modern) apps don't really perform well.
For whatever reason many of them aren't very information dense. So even if you move each one onto its own monitor for whatever reason much of the available space is wasted with solid colour or nonsense.
With 6 monitors I think I'd struggle to remember what was on each screen and have my head and eyes constantly scanning around! Kind of reminds me of those people that run Windows with no less than 42 shortcuts on their desktop!
Your eyes can only look at one screen at once. I find that a laptop + some key commands to switch between applications and windows of the same application is roughly equivalent to multiple monitors and just leaving everything open.
A poor cope for being forced to use a media consumption format. In order to make full use of the ratio ill-suited to productive work, you are compelled to adopt a specific workflow involving two windows being open at all times. Great, that stackoverflow search page can stay open. Do yourself a favor: pivot one of your cursed resolution monitors and open a source file on it in full screen. That is how many text rows you lost in the war on general purpose computing.
As someone who works with a single screen, I don’t get it.
I spend most of my time in the terminal, occasionally switching to a browser. The fact that I see a single window at a time is a “feature” to me.
Then again, if there was no difference in comfort, size, weight, etc, I’d happily increase the size of my screen, if only to increase the font size. I guess I’ll be a late adopter.
> Early multitasking required being able to interact with multiple windows.
If you have a laptop screen (especially low resolution screen from 2000s) you cannot have multiple windows visible at the same time and be useful. Imagine if you have a browser, a graphic editor, an IDE and spreadsheet. You simply cannot fit them onto 15" screen.
I share that sentiment. A big screen doesn't mesh well with moving from one corner of the bed to another.
Virtual desktops mostly solved the area problem for me: switching between code/result/docs is just a chord away. The rare situations where switching is happening all the time account for less than 10% of my usage.
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