How many monitors do you use for programming?

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cyclone3d

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Currently, I have 3 monitors setup on my main computer that I do programming work on.

1 for the IDE
1 for doing research on the web, reading technical docs, etc.
1 for file transfers, terminal, etc.

I can't stand to work with a single monitor anymore, and till a couple days ago, I was using ony 2 monitors which was getting kind of irritating.

Now that I have 3 setup, I am kinda wanting at least a 4th so I don't have to switch between stuff as much as I still have to do.
 
cyclone3d said:
1 for the IDE
1 for doing research on the web, reading technical docs, etc.
1 for file transfers, terminal, etc.
Click to expand...

Nice :cool:

I use my laptop for "for doing research on the web, reading technical docs, etc.," while my desktop handles everything else.


I'll think about having more screens, however :)
 
I use 2.

One for having Visual Studio open with the project I am supposed to be working on and the other doing everything I am not supposed to be doing. :D

Similar setup as op, my main monitor is where I do all my coding and my secondary I use for research/everything else.
 
a 30", and 2x21". yeah it would be nice to have more screen space. My home pc only has 2 21" I really hope to move to 3 23" soon for it.
 
As many as I have, plus another one, is ideal.

In other words, my workspace will continuously expand to fill all available monitors.
 
I originally had a single 30" then sold it for 3 x 23"... now I'm selling those and going back to a 30" + a 20" if I can find one.
 
two 17" at work, I actually opted for these over the larger 19s with the same resolution because text is a lot crisper with the tighter packed pixels. Same reason I use two 22" WS at home over 24s with the same resolution.
 
2x 20" at work, at home I develop on my MacBook Pro (CodeIgniter/php/etc). I'd love a few monitor setup at home, but first I have to get a desk. I don't even have a desk :(
 
I agree on liking high pixels per inch. I love the 30" for the 2560 res and large screen. I have a few co workers that run a 24" at 1440 x 900 and still complain that the text is to small... Yea I have tried to show them font sizing and other settings.
 
I use one 26" 1920x1200 (or 15.6" 1920x1080 on the laptop) for everything, unless I'm programming for a portable device, then there's that little LCD. :p
 
Those of you who only use one monitor - how can you stand it for programming work? Switching contantly in between programs drives me crazy.

I really do want a 4th monitor.. but I would either have to get a larger desk, make a stand, or start hanging them from the wall.

My main is a 22" wide , and the 2 side monitors are 19" standard - 1680x1050 and 1280x1024 respectively. They barely fit on my current desk....
 
It depends on the OS to me. Switching tasks/windows on the Mac is awful, unless you like to constantly use Expose. Child windows don't usually show up on the dock or via alt-tab.

I don't "constantly" switch tasks when programming, and under Windows it's fairly simple to get access to all windows (including child) when necessary. Preferences are preferences. :p
 
At home, I use 2x24" - If I had the desk space, I'd have 3 or 4 of these monitors.

At work, I have a 20" widescreen monitor, and a 20" 4:3 monitor. All it took to get that second monitor was a major understaffed, and over-budget government contract.
 
ive always used only one bit one, alt tab serves me well enough but I guess its just one of things I dont know what I'm missing until I really try it
 
I'm dying to go with 3x compared the the 1 1920x1200 I have now, but I'm having a bit of a dilemma. I also do a decent amount of gaming on my home comp, and I've been loving the thought of a 120hz display, but those only come in 16:9 aspect ratio. I'm not liking the thought of giving up those 120 lines of pixels when programming. Maybe it won't be bad if I can spread my stuff out more over the 3 displays, or maybe flip a couple 90 degrees while programming. Anyone else move from a 16:10 to 1 or more 16:9? Would love to know how noticeable it is while programming.
 
3 here.

1x 24 for actual page setup
1x 24 in portrait mode for coding (also do SQL)
1x 22 for Remote Desktop, and video stream / netflix while I code, gives me background noise and keeps my mind from going crazy when I stare at split view and the coding starts going funny on me.
 
Crash250f said:
Anyone else move from a 16:10 to 1 or more 16:9? Would love to know how noticeable it is while programming.
Click to expand...
I regularly switch between the two (desktop = 1920x1200, laptop = 1920x1080) and it's not that bad. It's around a 5 to 7 visible line difference at default font size.

If you're worried about it now, that might stick in your mind no matter what. :p I'm not that picky. On the tablet I just use full screen edit mode on the 1280x800 LCD.
 
I use 4 2x30" and 2 x 20"

here's a pic
91df6b6ada41ce91cb39f0b2926602b4.jpg
 
eon said:
ive always used only one bit one, alt tab serves me well enough but I guess its just one of things I dont know what I'm missing until I really try it
Click to expand...

you really should try it. A few years ago the guys at work would look at my dual monitor setup and go, meh, looks like a waste of desk space. It wasn't until I was working with one of them on a problem using my workstation. He was amazed how incredibly convenient it was to be able to tinker with the code on one screen while viewing the application on another. Since then, they all converted to dual monitor.
 
I use two. Normally one for the actual code, and another for the app I'm coding. I would not mind a 3rd one for research/internet/forums and other misc stuff I might use while coding. But I manage ok with 2. Actually I take that back, I could use a 3rd one for Evony so I can monitor it and tell right away if I'm getting attacked. That is a serious addiction lol.
 
Dubzz said:
I use 4 2x30" and 2 x 20"
Click to expand...

God, I would *love* your setup.

I've managed to scrounge and finagle and get myself 2 x 20" at work, but it's just not enough real-estate.
 
I have one 16x10 monitor. Our IT department is cheap, they don't realize that the time I spend wasted by using a single monitor costs much more than 700$ they would spend for getting me a dual 19x12 setup.

Sad thing is, I can't even bring my own second monitor because my work PC is so shitty that it only has 1 DVI out...

/rant
 
I use two computers. One monitor on my desktop for keeping the IDE open (24" screen) and a laptop (14" screen) for accessing documentation, Googling, etc.

At work, I have a 19" monitor and my laptop... this is usually the standard for an intern.
 
BDV said:
Sad thing is, I can't even bring my own second monitor because my work PC is so shitty that it only has 1 DVI out...
Click to expand...

BDV, I solved that problem by picking up an inexpensive DVI-I to DVI-D / VGA splitter. If your single DVI is a DVI-I you may be in luck.

Although, I've found that your video card's support for the full DVI-I functionality may be... lacking. You could have all sorts of things result due to that. Like having to run matching refresh rates or resultions. So far I've used three different cards at work and had one fully support the monitors as truely independent.

Worth a shot though.
 
BDV said:
Sad thing is, I can't even bring my own second monitor because my work PC is so shitty that it only has 1 DVI out...
Click to expand...

If Khanmots idea doesn't work, then these USB to DVI devices may work for you. A few developers at my work have been using them for months without issue on XP, Vista, and 7.
 
At work I have 4x19'', Verizon is extremely cheap, they won't buy any new hardware, it's horrid on some days. Have a 5th one on the cube wall too, but I stopped using that lately.

At home got a 24'' and a 22'', but I found that I code more on the couch on my laptop while watching TV than sitting in front of the desktop. That gets more time when I'm gaming.
 
Everyone in the company gets 2, which is good since I think 1 would be pretty painful. In my case I think they're both 20"

I use one for the IDE, the other for the app itself (usually spread over a dozen browser tabs). Everything else (text editors, databases, shell sessions, remote desktops) just gets piled up so you're still using alt+tab quite a bit.
 
I'm using a 20"x2 setup atm. I came across these monitors in a weird way (flea market) after I had ordered a companion monitor for my 19" Gateway WS. The non widescreen setup works much better imo for coding than the WS. Only thing is gaming which is a trade off I have gladly made. Playing CS, Just Cause 2, DOA, etc, just fine for the summer. Don't miss my widescreens at all.
 
My programming is mostly web-based these days. I use a laptop connected to 3 19" screens. The built-in laptop screen has my iTunes and Tweetdeck (Twitter and Facebook) on it. The screen to the right of that has the site I'm testing, usually on 3 or 4 browsers. The screen to the right of that is my main screen and has my IDE or editor on it. The screen to the right of that has a RDP session to my Windows 7 box and my email. I've recently started using an iPad right behind my keyboard as my reference to the language/API I'm working with.

Here's a pic of my setup while watching March Madness:
ncaa.jpg
 
just 2... dell 2007wfp and dell 2007fp (non widescreen)... they make a cute couple.
 
For programming just one. I don't really see the need for more than one, just clutters up space for something a proper window manager could do. Pretty much all my programming work is done on my MacBook Pro and spaces + expose + 24" 1920x1200 is more than enough for me. Sometimes I leave the MBP's display up and have itunes or something similar over there, but really the spaces and the like there is no need for it.


On windows it can be clunker because Microsoft is suck in the 80s or something. Switcher and Desktops make it somewhat better.
 
(Note I'm talking about web programming here)

Usually 3. Page I'm working on in one monitor, code in another, and usually site files in the third. I'd like to get a really small 4th one just for IM conversations and the like.
 
cyclone3d said:
Currently, I have 3 monitors setup on my main computer that I do programming work on.

1 for the IDE
1 for doing research on the web, reading technical docs, etc.
1 for file transfers, terminal, etc.

I can't stand to work with a single monitor anymore, and till a couple days ago, I was using ony 2 monitors which was getting kind of irritating.

Now that I have 3 setup, I am kinda wanting at least a 4th so I don't have to switch between stuff as much as I still have to do.
Click to expand...
I'm running three at work: a 15.6" wide laptop, a 19" 4:3 LCD and a 22" 16:10 hooked up via USB->VGA adapter. Similar to you, except the 3rd is for the output version of the program that I'm actually working on. At home, it's the laptop and my 32" desktop.
BDV said:
Sad thing is, I can't even bring my own second monitor because my work PC is so shitty that it only has 1 DVI out...
Click to expand...
Check if you have any expansion slots on the back. I just convinced my dad to buy an ADD2 to for his workstation at his office- it's $10 out-of-pocket, but it's well worth the convenience of a second screen.
PTNL said:
If Khanmots idea doesn't work, then these USB to DVI devices may work for you. A few developers at my work have been using them for months without issue on XP, Vista, and 7.
Click to expand...
I'm running one at work without issue, and my dad used the same before putting in the expansion card. They work well enough, as long as too much of the screen doesn't change at once. They don't have the bandwidth to do a real full-page feed, so dragging windows around causes massive artifacting (sections of the screen that scramble and don't come back until you mouseover them) and it flickers from time to time (very rarely, but it still does). I'd only recommend this as a last resort. I think you'd be better off with a DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go and screen partitioning software instead.
 
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