

Ask HN: How large is your display, what's preferable for development? - alonswartz

I'm in the search for my next laptop. I've always had a 15" laptop and find it quite productive, but am considering a 14" for portability reasons. I don't watch movies or play games, I code, all day...<p>I've always wanted to be part of the three monitor club, but due to moving around I've never had the opportunity.<p>Bottom line, what monitor size would you recommend for productive coding?<p>For bonus points, if you have multiple monitors or a really large one, do you really find it more productive? or distracting?
======
NumberFiveAlive
As for the monitors themselves, it's much much less about the size and more
about the pixels. My primary monitor is a 1920x1200 and I love it. I have
three other 'smaller' (in terms of pixels) and I honestly think the fourth one
is more of a distraction than a help. I do frequently use the other three all
at the same time (code on one, database tools on another, and browser for
running/debugging the web pages I'm working on on the third).

My iMac display is an insane 2560x1440 (or something close to it) and I still
am badly in need of a second monitor. But I feel that with that many pixels,
just one additional monitor would be optimal. Particularly if it were that
same size (not that I'm going to shell out the $1000 for that any time soon
when the 1920x1080 monitors are so cheap now).

------
_delirium
I've been going somewhat retro on the monitors lately. I used to have a
billion virtual desktops, two physical monitors, etc. But I now find I get
more done with a single, relatively small monitor, in Linux console mode (!),
running some reasonable but not huge resolution. I don't go all the way to
80x25, but 132x50 works nicely. The fact that it causes about a second pause
when I ctrl+alt+f7 back to the X console (due to reinitializing the videomode)
is also a nice deterrent from ADDish alt+tabbing.

The main time I find two monitors productive is if I'm doing a lot of
iterations on something where I need to keep looking at the output, like
webdev stuff. Then it's nice to have the webpage on one monitor, and the code
on the other, instead of arranging two half-screens or alt+tabbing a lot.

------
briandoll
I've had many monitor configurations over the years, including a three monitor
setup that included a 30" cinima display. To be honest, it was more
distracting than it was worth. I'd go to the coffee shop with just my laptop
and come back with tons of stuff done.

A single laptop screen (or single medium-sized desktop monitor) means you only
have one place to focus. With two monitors, I always ended up having
"distractions" like twitter, email, RSS, etc. there to pull me away.

I love my current 15" macbook pro but I also loved my 13" macbook pro when
travelling. Depending on how much you travel, I'd go with either of those and
no monitor and get into immersive environments instead of nailing yourself to
a desk.

~~~
malandrew
I agree with the distractions part. If I need to focus, email is closed as is
twitter. Growl doesn't help either.

------
devmonk
More monitors are more productive. Larger screens (only if good resolution,
etc.) are also more productive. All monitors should typically be within
peripheral vision, otherwise notifications coming up might not be noticed.

Consider a real keyboard and mouse. Consider synergy:
<http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/>

If you are looking at a macbook/macbook pro - also consider glossy vs. matte
screen (glare can be an issue).

Finally, if you're really trying to be productive, consider other visual and
audible distractions, flow interruptions, taking breaks during work to
increase mental stamina, length of time spent at work.

------
mike463
I have a single 30" monitor and use Spaces on the mac. It makes me much much
more productive than smaller monitors.

The thing I like most about the 30" monitor is the HEIGHT -- I can see more
lines of code. The width doesn't usually get used until I do side-by-side
diffs.

The thing about one monitor is that I focus on one thing, and other things
don't usually distract me from the sides. The notable exception is the red
apple mail badge (small red numbers counting new mail). I sometimes have to
turn down/off the mail check frequency.

I organize things with Spaces: 1) mail+organizer+chat 2) calendar 3) browser
4-7) main dev windows (terminal/xemacs) 8) itunes

------
coreyrecvlohe
Currently working with two monitors and but I definitely need a third one. At
any point in time, I have at least four different browsers open, two or three
adobe apps, a few text editors, communications windows, terminals and so on.

I feel I am more productive, because it's all about viewing space. If I have
to alt-tab, or exposé between windows back and forth, that's a time waste.

If you're going for maximum productivity, I don't think you can really achieve
it on a laptop, unless you're in and out of the office on a daily basis. I'd
say if you're looking to get the most work done, use multiple monitors.

~~~
duck
_If I have to alt-tab, or exposé between windows back and forth, that's a time
waste._

Only if your hands aren't already on the keyboard.

~~~
coreyrecvlohe
Heyoo

------
malandrew
I use a 17" MacBook Pro for coding with Divvy to manage the screen real
estate. I keep a browser, TextMate and Terminal open. Occasionally I will have
a PDF open as well if I am learning something from an eBook.

I also have a 30" Cinema Display that I use, but more often than not the
portability of the laptop and the fact that I need to rearrange my windows
when connecting the 30" display often prevents me from switching over to it.

I have found though that the 30" display works well for pair programming if
you enlarge the text in Terminal and TextMate or if you lower the screen
resolution to 1920x1200.

------
chipsy
For me, monitor size is dependent on real estate needs. If I'm doing work that
requires a lot of high-res visuals I can make use of two monitors; but if I'm
working with plain text, an 80x25 character display is usually fine. I do not
generally use monitor space to view things I am not working on - at most, I'll
have one chat window going. In the past I felt an improvement from more
monitors, but now I suspect that they are mostly band-aids for a lack of
concentration.

I generally recommend to people to get smaller sized laptops because the lower
bulk will help to absorb bumps and drops.

~~~
malandrew
sorry to be pedantic, but the lower bulk won't absorb bumps and drops. It will
however reduce the impulse, because the lower mass results in less force

impulse = F * dT F = m * a

------
byoung2
I currently have two 22.6" monitors and a 15" laptop. I read a study once that
found that dual monitors increased productivity over a single large monitor.
Also, I believe that this effect increased with monitor size up to about 24",
then declined, especially after 30".

EDIT: Here was the article I was referring to:
[http://lifehacker.com/367391/do-larger-monitors-make-you-
mor...](http://lifehacker.com/367391/do-larger-monitors-make-you-more-
productive)

------
iuguy
I use a Dell XPSM1530. Dell's build quality has been, well, variable to say
the least of late but the XPSM1530 although now discontinued is an awesome
laptop. The best part though is the 16" 1920x1200 display. I do a lot of
proposal and report writing and it allows me to have two documents side by
side.

It's also good for coding, gives me plenty of space in PyDev, Immunity
Debugger, plenty of terminals and everything else I need on the one screen and
it's still portable too!

------
robgough
I find a massive difference between mac and windows, I believe that's mostly
thanks to exposé.

On Windows I have 3 monitors (of varying sizes unfortunately) and think I
couldn't have enough of them (one for a full-screened version of each app I
use). On a Mac I seem more comfortable with just 1.

But I am coding .Net apps on the Win box (with a seperate VS solution for
server & client), whereas the Mac is more web development. Maybe that makes a
difference too.

------
greg_holsclaw
I have a 15" (1680x1050) laptop with a 24" (1920x1200) second monitor. KVM
switched to my Mac as well.

This setup is great. I have background tasks on the laptop screen (email,
system monitoring, directories) with my main dev work and auxiliaries on the
big screen.

------
alonswartz
Interesting sort-of-related article:
[http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/08/the-large-
display-p...](http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/08/the-large-display-
paradox.html)

------
Todd
By coincidence, I happen to be using a 55" touch screen right now (an LG HDTV
1920x1080 with a PQ Labs touch overlay). It's actually pretty usable but I do
feel neck strain a the end of the day.

------
AjJi
Right now, I'm on a 19". I feel like having another monitor will be more
productive. I'm not sure, though, If having 2 screens with different
sizes/resolutions is usable, any thoughts?

------
papa
Have you made use of any of the virtual desktop solutions out there? I've
found Spaces on Mac to be useful when I'm on a single 15" screen.

~~~
alonswartz
Been using them for years on Linux, can't live without them. I use three 1)
email + timelog 2) journal + coding 3) reference + browser. With the help of
the virtual desktops and keybindings, any app or desktop I need access to is a
key combo away.

