An Architect's View

20 responses so far ↓

• 1 Niall O'Doherty // Dec 19, 2006 at 5:46 AM

  3 Monitors...I'm sort of in the same boat only mine are spread over a standard PC and Laptop. My PC has two monitors which I use mainly for my browser view of the site I'm working on and the CF code view in the other. The laptop, I use for my SQL code / DB view. Really speeds things up when you can see the complete picture without having to rotate the windows.

• 2 Terry Schmitt // Dec 19, 2006 at 6:35 AM

  I, too, read Michael's article. Good write-up. I'm also reading the latest Quarterly Update from Michael and really enjoy his writing style.
  It simply amazes me that so few people use a multi monitor setup. I agree that a 3-monitor setup is overkill, but I've been using a dual setup since around 2000. I'm currently using a dual 17" LCD combo on my desktop, which really works well. Having Eclipse in one screen and the browser or query tool in the other is priceless. I feel extremely hobbled when I occasionally use a laptop with only the built in screen.
  My advise to those that have not used a dual setup. Just do it! The benefits are priceless. Most laptops support dual displays and prices of LCD monitors are very low. Many desktops also support multi monitors or you can install a dual-head video card for low cost too.
  
  Terry

• 3 Big Mad Kev // Dec 19, 2006 at 6:41 AM

  I've just started a new job and in my last I managed to wangle a Dual Screen set-up starting the new job it was the first thing I asked for by day 2 had it ordered day 3 and installed on the 5th. I ordered the XFX 7600GT 590MHz 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E & two 19" Height Adjustable DVI TFT's and the cables (Needed extra long cables) I think once you have gone dual you really just can't go back to one however big it is :-)

• 4 Matt Williams // Dec 19, 2006 at 7:58 AM

  I like 2 monitors. Does anyone use 2 computers?
  
  I'm about to switch jobs which will have me using a laptop and second monitor attached to that. I'm thinking of a 24" with 1920x1200 res as the secondary. Plenty of room for eclipse and code, while the smaller laptop screen 15.4" will be for the browser.
  
  For music, IMs, etc. I'm debating using an older, second computer. This computer could also have IE 6 still running for additional testing.

• 5 Joe Mastroianni // Dec 19, 2006 at 8:38 AM

  The only thing I disagree with is this:
  
  "The more video you're putting out, the more your computer is working, so having a video card with an accelerator will take some of the load off your CPU"
  
  I don't think this is the case if he's runnning XP.

• 6 Jeff Houser // Dec 19, 2006 at 9:08 AM

  I went from one to two and noticed an extreme productivity boost.
  
  Then I added a third and noticed an increase, but not nearly as much from going one to two.
  
  The the height of it, my three were:
  1 17 inch laptop screen
  2 Dell 20 inch Flat Screens
  
  Unfortunately, I believe that my current desk doesn't allow for proper ergonomic use of multiple monitors. I kept jerking my head back and forth and eventually developed a constant dull pain in my jaw.
  
  I've been experimenting with different setups to see if that constant dull pain in the right side of my right jaw will go away. I think it's slowly dissipating.
  
  Right now I'm back to a single monitor. With a few exceptions, I really don't miss the dual monitor setup.

• 7 Cary Gordon // Dec 19, 2006 at 9:10 AM

  I have been using two 19" monitors at 2560x1024 for a while. I tried 3200x1200 on 20" monitors, but had the disturbing feeling that my head was about to explode. I have a friend who has four 19" monitors at 2560x2048, but that caused me severe neck pain after a few moments.
  
  My architect suitemate has a 30" 2560x1600 Apple Cinema monitor. These are down to $2k and could be in my future if I have a good year.

• 8 Mark W. Breneman // Dec 19, 2006 at 10:45 AM

  I find 3 - 19 inch CRT monitors running each @ 1600x1200 works very well for me.
  
  When I added a 2nd monitor I found a massive improvement in productivity. When I added the third monitor I saw only a slight improvement. But,... you would have to pry the third monitor out of my cold dead hands, if you wanted to take it away.
  
  I sometimes wish I had a 4th monitor, but I know that it would probably not help my productivity.
  
  I find it handy to put my eclipse (or dreamweaver) palates on a one of my side monitors and devote the main (middle) monitor to 1600x1200 of just code.
  
  I will 2nd Michael's recommendation of UltraMon. It is a must for multi monitor.

• 9 David Farr // Dec 19, 2006 at 12:38 PM

  I use two 19" monitors set at 1280 x 1024 and additionally run multiple desktops. The extra desktops reduce the clutter on any one monitor.

• 10 Sean Corfield // Dec 19, 2006 at 1:52 PM

  I never did say how I worked when I posted this...
  
  I have a laptop (15.4" widescreen) with an external 19" monitor set to the right and slightly higher. At home I used a 19" monitor in portrait mode, again off to the right and slightly higher.
  
  I keep IM and other distractions on the external monitor and I work on the laptop.

• 11 Joe Mastroianni // Dec 19, 2006 at 4:34 PM

  At a previous job I had 2 side by side 19" LCDs in portrait mode. Everyone though I was nuts but i liked the length rather then width.

• 12 Stefan le Roux // Dec 19, 2006 at 9:28 PM

  I've been using a dual-monitor set-up for the last four years, after actually upgrading from a single 21" monitor. I strongly advise this for any developer who has never tried it. You will never look back. Right after signing my contract at a new job I asked the IT manager how many monitors his developers use, he said - one, why? Three weeks later the entire development team moved to a dual-monitor set-up. Personally I think two 17" monitors are enough desktop real estate for any humanoid.

• 13 Brian Truong // Dec 19, 2006 at 10:28 PM

  Having a dual-monitor setup is great. Three? Possibly. For me, I prefer to have a large monitor at the highest resolution possible.
  
  I started out a desktop with monitor, than upgraded to two 19" LCD. Two monitors improved my productivity dramatically. I later upgraded to a monitor with a 24" 2405fpw connected, I really like the resolution of 1920x1200. I think the ideal setup would be a 30" 2560x1600 or higher resolution monitor.

• 14 Justin Carter // Dec 20, 2006 at 12:32 AM

  Out of interest, how many of you use 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 for your desktop resolutions, and how many of you maximise your windows when coding/browsing/other?
  
  I find 1280x1024 to be reasonably crippling, and 1024x768 to be unusable! I don't maximise windows when I work (with two exceptions that I'll mention in a minute) because I find that maximising windows is a waste of real estate (at the resolution I use).
  
  Primary Monitor (Sony 19" CRT @ 1600x1200 - starting to get a bit blurry):
  
  I generaly (manually) cascade my non-maximised windows from the bottom left of screen to the top right, so that the top left corner of the window is easily clickable even though I might have a dozen or more windows open. At any one time I could have these things running, it a mostly left-to-right'ish order:
  Windows Explorer (times a few), Command Prompt, SQL Management Studio, Email(s), Notepad, Acrobat Reader, Firefox + FireBug, Eclipse (or occassionally Dreamweaver 8). I might also have Outlook and Photoshop CS open, but I always run them maximised (the first exception) and just minimise them while not directly using them.
  
  When I'm coding I have Eclipse (or Dreamweaver) taking up the full height of the screen positioned at the very top right, but only using about 55-60% it's width (using 1600x1200 that's a good 900+ pixels wide, more than enough for even long lines of code). This allows me to look at column names and tables on the left of screen in SQL Management Studio or other things from emails or notepad windows, while I code on the right with minimal window switching.
  
  Seondary Monitor (15" CRT @ 1024x768 - if this was my primary monitor I would die!):
  
  This is usually where my browsers go, and unfortunately I just run them maximised (the other exception) because the monitor doesn't even handle 1280x1024 or beyond. I would have a similar cascading setup if this were a larger monitor (preferrably also running at least 1600x1200) where I could also more easily run a decent height Firefox + FireBug window, Virtual PC and Terminal Services @ 1280x1024, depending on the work I'm doing at the time. For now I use these on the primary monitor only - the main killer is running IE6 in a virtual machine on my primary monitor because it overlaps my code window, and I can't move it to the secondary monitor because the resolution is too low - 1024x768 doesn't fit inside 1024x760 when you have a window around the VM and the host OS' taskbar taking up room too!!!).
  
  I think if I was forced to use 1280x1024 I would NEED 3 monitors. I would be much happier using just 2 monitors @ 1600x1200 or 1680x1050 though :)
  
  I'd be interested to see how others work!

• 15 Rachel Maxim // Dec 20, 2006 at 7:26 AM

  I use dual 19" Dell ultra-sharps at work, and I work the heck out of them. I've thought about adding a third but not sure how to convince my boss and my IT manager that it's necessary...plus I'm not sure the additional head movement would make it practical.
  I use a single 21" wide screen at home, and I really like it for those screen-hog apps that don't allow you to move your menus/panels to a different monitor without juggling the window location and size, but it's no substitute for two.
  I do a lot of design in addition to development, so when I have PhotoShop and InDesign with their bazillion menus open at the same time on different monitors, I really could use a third. So many times I've accidentally clicked on an InDesign menu when working in PhotoShop (darn those look-alike interfaces!)...so moving the menus for the different apps to different places seems like a nice idea. Or maybe I should just stop trying to multi-task so much! As far as I'm concerned, you can never have too much monitor space when working with Creative Suite/Studio.

• 16 Bill Dykstra // Dec 20, 2006 at 9:53 AM

  I recently added a third 19" LCD (all three are 19" LCDs) when I discovered I had an extra video output on my computer (an extra 19" LCD sitting around also helped). While it's not necessary for standard development work, I find it extremely useful in my SysAdmin role. I use the third monitor for all my Remote Desktop sessions to the servers, while my regular development work is done with the other two monitors. Due to the frequency of requiring remote desktop connections to the servers, this third monitor is a big help.
  

• 17 Jim Priest // Dec 20, 2006 at 6:21 PM

  I think my ideal would be two 21-24" widescreens.
  
  I really like the widescreen format for my IDE, and the other one would be nice to be able to swivel to a page reading format for long documents, query outputs, etc. I could see a 3rd monitor possibly being useful if you rely heavily on IM or email.
  
  

• 18 tof // Jan 1, 2007 at 10:18 PM

  At work we have 24-inch monitors (I don't, but some developers do). It allows them to have the navigator, and methods view on either side of the screen, with something like a full 19-inch left in the center for the code. pretty cool.

• 19 Brian Peregrino // Feb 27, 2007 at 1:47 PM

  We use triple screen displays from CineMassive - Trio 21X - at the office. Its the prefect set of hardware for pretty much everything we do. you get the dual wings in portrait on the ends with a 21.3 inch centerpiece. Cant't recommend them enough. they do a great job: http://www.cinemassivedisplays.com

• 20 Denzien // Aug 2, 2007 at 2:18 PM

  I use a dual 19" portrait mode monitor setup at work, I love it for traversing long methods. I'm trying to get a third. At home I have a 27" Dell I bought to approximate the overall resolution I get at work for when I work from home. I like it a lot better, but then there's the issue of maximization. Haven't gotten to write my UltraMon-like project yet.
  
  I've seen one setup online that uses the Dell 30" as the centerpiece with two 20" monitors in portrait as the "wings" - the 30" is as tall as the 20"ers are wide. That would seem ideal, using the native maximization on the 20" monitors for documents, and the massive center monitor for your IDE, with verticaly split panes.

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