Questions for People Who Use Vertical Monitors for Coding

[2rueSid]

Hi everyone!

I'm a Software Engineer working on infra, backend and scripting, with occasional forays into frontend.

I often juggle 2-3 active Tmux windows, each with 3-4 panes, plus vim with 1-2 active buffers. As you might imagine, this can be quite overwhelming, especially when writing HCP code and needing to keep track of multiple contexts.

I've always coded using just my laptop, but recently, I've started exploring the idea of getting a vertical monitor. I'm curious to hear your recommendations or experiences with using vertical monitors.

Right now, I'm considering the Dell UltraSharp 27" 4K UHD LCD Monitor (U2723QE). What do you think?

Also, How do you handle switching between multiple contexts in large projects?

Thanks!

[uberman]

I use a big 4k monitor from Dell. Not sure what specs other than it swivels between landscape and portrait. I actually have two of them. One I keep in each orientation as well as the monitor on my laptop.

I really feel constrained now using just my laptop.

When working at my main desk, I keep email and office like junk open on the laptop and use the portrait monitor for coding.

The ability to see so much context is invaluable particularly when reviewing code from junior dev's that frequently has 1000s of lines per file.

The big landscape monitor I use for data visualizations and sometimes 4 additional panes looking at data.

[gregjor]

I got an LG DualUp that can rotate to either vertical or horizontal. It has an almost but not quite square display. I also usually have multiple mux'd sessions and vim with at least a couple of splits on the screen.

I can't say that it makes a huge difference compared to using my Macbook with the built-in 13" display -- I don't have any good way to measure my "productivity." I think it helps mainly because I can make the text larger (good for my old eyes) without losing too much content/context.

I also sometimes work on an iPad, which has a better screen in terms of resolution and sharpness than the LG, so I can use that with small type sizes and not strain my eyes. For me, the main advantage of the iPad is staying focused on one thing -- no overlapping or multiple windows, just one full-screen window with the task at hand. With larger displays I always end up with overlapping terminal, Slack, browser, email, etc. vying for attention.

I switch context with vim buffers, tags, and the ctrl-P plugin (fuzzy file finder). I use a paper notebook and pen to take notes and keep a stack of things to remember. I use GNU screen instead of tmux, usually with four or five sessions, but I don't split those into windows, I just switch between them with hotkeys (one for a vim window, one for a MySQL/Postgres/SQLite CLI session, one tailing the log file, etc.).

I developed most of my work habits a long time ago (decades ago) and have stuck with them. While objectively perhaps not as "productive" as possible, familiar habits and tools have a lot of value, so while I do try new things and experiment with my workflow and tools I tend to revert back to what I don't have to think about too much while using it.

[quantified]

I find a vertical monitor really helpful for writing and reviewing code. I generally have the IDE split into tabs both horizontally and vertically, with vertical stacking most often unless I want something side-by-side. I tend to favor 1 argument per line/1 parameter per line for lists of 3 or more entries, this pushes me harder towards vertical monitor orientation and helps lines be narrower.

Email, Slack, other comms tools in a horizontal monitor. Web pages often are nicer to read vertically, more like a good printed page.

What do you mean "multiple contexts in large projects?" In IntelliJ, I'll have different windows/projects for different workspace dirs, each dir with a different branch or repo. Then I can code review in on branch without losing context for work I'm doing on another. Wish I had more monitors.

[GianFabien]

I find portrait mode screen excellent for coding. I see more code in context.

My short-term memory is bad. But I am very productive with my 3 LCD setup. The middle monitor is portrait mode and is my primary point of interaction. That is why it is in the central position. To each side I have monitors in landscape orientation. Those are used for multiple windows of related / inter-dependent information.

I'm mostly keyboard oriented, ALT-TAB between windows. I use a trackball to slam the cursor around. I use a desktop that supports 3 LCDs without problems. Not sure if a laptop would suffice. But you could certainly have a portrait mode monitor and use the laptop screen landscape for a 2 screen setup.

[2rueSid → GianFabien]

It seems you have a nice setup!

Well, yes, I initially thought of having my laptop as the primary monitor (it's actually big) and using a portrait mode monitor mainly for reading code, not for writing code.

Are you comfortable with the middle being taller than the others?

[GianFabien → 2rueSid]

I've setup the tops of all three screens to be aligned. Thus my focus is pretty much on the same vertical level. I tend to edit code near the top and middle. The bottom part tends to be more contextual. When reading code I tend to scroll up as I read so the top and bottom are to maintain context. I dislike methods that span more than 2-3 screens with this layout.