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I went from two screens back to one with a tiling window manager. What I was finding, was each tab/window/screen swap was a chance to lose focus. In practice I

by ehnto 2y ago

I went from two screens back to one with a tiling window manager. What I was finding, was each tab/window/screen swap was a chance to lose focus. In practice I do lose focus a lot if I'm switching between screens. I don't have the same issue with tiles, and I can also setup workspaces to act a bit like focus rooms. I do a lot of little things to retain focus, another one is removing the mouse from my workflow as much as possible as it feels kind of like taking your hands off the wheel to fiddle with the car stereo. You switch mode, and that can disrupt focus.

hinkley 2y ago
I have a friend with 4 monitors. I've set at his desk and the feeling is very similar to a tanning bed. I don't know that he actually needs those monitors, he seems to end up watching e-sports during his work day, though it hasn't affected his career as far as I know. But then he's well above average so even coasting he's doing more than most. I really have trouble justifying more than two, unless I'm working on a project with DevOps responsibilities. There are several windows you need and 'losing' one is more problematic for some people than others. You need to write code. You need to test the code you just wrote. You need source material for writing new code (docs, bug dbs, stack overflow), and you need windows for any background tasks you're responsible for. Since source material and testing tend not to overlap, one monitor for both usually works out pretty well. A third monitor, oriented it portrait mode, can usually accommodate enough windows to monitor logs or grafana dashboards. Giving over a spare monitor to it improves the gestalt and increases the odds that you will look at it on an interval that your boss approves of. With a wider (taller when rotated) monitor you can fit 2 dashboards with a little room left over to see the rate of new logs - when things are scrolling too fast or too slow that can indicate a problem with the system before it shows on the graphs. With a big enough primary monitor, I could do with just 2 (and would have to - my 2nd monitor already hangs off the end of my desk). But at 32" I don't feel I have the space to lose it. Also the 2nd monitor has my only video camera.
- ehnto 2y ago
  Oh I totally should have mentioned, I went from two 24"@ 1080p each to a single 34" at QHD as they call it. So a significant real-estate increase was required to manage one monitor. I don't use it like two monitors in one. Usually my code editor is two thirds of the screen wide, application I am testing is one third,then terminal windows are across the whole bottom of the screen at about a quarter of the bottom of the screen. So you are right you do tend to need those things in easy view, and I have achieved that but slightly differently to a multi-monitor setup.

by ehnto 2y ago

hinkley 2y ago

I have a friend with 4 monitors. I've set at his desk and the feeling is very similar to a tanning bed. I don't know that he actually needs those monitors, he seems to end up watching e-sports during his work day, though it hasn't affected his career as far as I know. But then he's well above average so even coasting he's doing more than most. I really have trouble justifying more than two, unless I'm working on a project with DevOps responsibilities. There are several windows you need and 'losing' one is more problematic for some people than others. You need to write code. You need to test the code you just wrote. You need source material for writing new code (docs, bug dbs, stack overflow), and you need windows for any background tasks you're responsible for. Since source material and testing tend not to overlap, one monitor for both usually works out pretty well. A third monitor, oriented it portrait mode, can usually accommodate enough windows to monitor logs or grafana dashboards. Giving over a spare monitor to it improves the gestalt and increases the odds that you will look at it on an interval that your boss approves of. With a wider (taller when rotated) monitor you can fit 2 dashboards with a little room left over to see the rate of new logs - when things are scrolling too fast or too slow that can indicate a problem with the system before it shows on the graphs. With a big enough primary monitor, I could do with just 2 (and would have to - my 2nd monitor already hangs off the end of my desk). But at 32" I don't feel I have the space to lose it. Also the 2nd monitor has my only video camera.

ehnto 2y ago
Oh I totally should have mentioned, I went from two 24"@ 1080p each to a single 34" at QHD as they call it. So a significant real-estate increase was required to manage one monitor. I don't use it like two monitors in one. Usually my code editor is two thirds of the screen wide, application I am testing is one third,then terminal windows are across the whole bottom of the screen at about a quarter of the bottom of the screen. So you are right you do tend to need those things in easy view, and I have achieved that but slightly differently to a multi-monitor setup.