Is a dual monitor setup absolutely necessary for programming/coding?

[thevictor390]

4 hours ago, LAwLz said:

I think sharing your experience can be a good thing. 

However, it's important to differentiate these scenarios from what the OP might require as a beginner hobbyist learning Python.

 

In a corporate setting, the advantages of additional monitors are tied to the demands of multi-tasking, managing complex projects, and enhancing workflow efficiency over long hours. These setups are optimized for professional tasks and supported by company budgets. 

For someone just starting a hobby in programming, the scenario is quite different. The initial stages of learning to code focus more on understanding basic concepts and simple projects, which can be done on a single screen without issues.

 

Since a beginner might not have the necessary knowledge to differentiate between different contexts (professional vs hobby, expert vs beginner) they may see your post as an encouragement to adopt a professional-grade setup that might not only be overkill but could also lead to confusion and unnecessary expense. They might mistakenly believe that equipment that optimizes a professional workflow is essential for learning effectively, which is not the case.

 

As a more experienced member in a field, it is important to provide guidance that is not just accurate but also accessible and relevant to the learning stage the person you are responding to is at. Starting with what they already have, ensuring they can focus on the learning process itself without being overwhelmed by the idea that they need a professional setup to make any progress is usually the way to go.

 

To make an analogy, if someone new to strength training asks for advice then it would be irresponsible for a professional bodybuilder to post their workout routine and go "this is what I do". Even if they posted an explanation for the workout it is not guaranteed that the person reading the response will understand it fully and think that adopting that routine is the wy to go. It would most likely result in physical harm and a feeling of failure for the beginner who tried to adopt that workout routine and who may think "this is what everyone else does so I should do it too".

 

 

I don't want to single you out, because I see this happen on this forum a lot. Responses have to be tailored towards the person who asked the question. It is not enough to just go "this is what I do" without making sure it is understandable by someone who has little or no knowledge in the field.

I will draw an example from my own experience learning to code on a 1024x768 Pentium II laptop.

It is very convenient to put your learning materials and your in-progress code on screen at the same time. I think this is fully appropriate advice for a beginner.

[GoStormPlays]

20 minutes ago, thevictor390 said:

I will draw an example from my own experience learning to code on a 1024x768 Pentium II laptop.

It is very convenient to put your learning materials and your in-progress code on screen at the same time. I think this is fully appropriate advice for a beginner.

for a second I thought you were currently learning coding and I was very worried

[Lurking]

37 minutes ago, thevictor390 said:

I will draw an example from my own experience learning to code on a 1024x768 Pentium II laptop.

It is very convenient to put your learning materials and your in-progress code on screen at the same time. I think this is fully appropriate advice for a beginner.

I don't know coding ... but I suspect one also has reference material, online forums and other sources open at the same time as the coding software 

 

And as for beginner vs expert coder.. monitors are a long term investment (IMHO). If you are a beginner today, you may be an expert in a year. So buy a setup for the maximum use. 

 

My monitors cost $700 each and I had to pay for the four I have at home. Considering between my wife and I we look at them many many hours every day, this cost is totally worth it. People spend much less time in a car, but spend $10K above what is needed just for it being a bit nicer. To me monitors are not a cost, but an investment.

 

And I bet there is some study showing looking at a small monitor all day is worse than looking at a large monitor (narrow vs. Wide vision). When you walk all day, don't save money on good shoes 

 

At the pandemic I started working from home with varying setups with 2x and 3x 27" monitors with just what I had at hand. My only regret is I didn't get this 2x43" setup right away and wasted years with inferior (to me) setups. 

[Zevrant]

3 hours ago, anirudthelinuxwIzard said:

That's ....not true, you can fit so much more code on a vertical screen.

it really depends on if you like multple windows on a single screen or not.

24" is fine if you like 2 screens per window
27" if you're ok with reading small text and like to fit 3 side by side for things that rewuire additional vertical space with static ui elements or 4 for simpler applications.

 

I agree it's not necessary but being able to fit all of the windows on your screen is something i prefer as i spend less time tabbing through the dozen windows i might have open vs switching back and forth between open windows that have dedicated screen space.

Personally i choose more of the side by side for my IDEs as i typically work with jetbrains IDEs in my day to day and those benifit from the small amount of additional vertical space rather than doing 4x4, and then do 4x4 with firefox, email, IM program and dedicated terminal window.

[LAwLz]

27 minutes ago, Lurking said:

And as for beginner vs expert coder.. monitors are a long term investment (IMHO). If you are a beginner today, you may be an expert in a year. So buy a setup for the maximum use. 

Or they might have gotten bored and quit 2 months later because programming wasn't for them. 

 

Which is why they should start off with what they have and don't start buying things before they feel like they need them. 

 

 

3000 dollars worth of gym equipment will make workouts better, but it's not something someone who is just starting out should buy. 

You need to actually try things out before going all out and blowing a bunch of money on equipment you may end up never using or needing. 

[wanderingfool2]

On 5/8/2024 at 7:28 PM, Mahbub said:

Hello, I am starting to learn Python and I have one 1440p 27-inch main monitor and a 1080p vertical monitor on the side. I have started to feel like constantly looking to the side monitor and back to the main monitor is causing me very bad neck strain, I am curious to know that do you all use dual screens? How much tougher will it be for me to do programming if I just use the single 1440p monitor? Thanks.

To answer your question, nope it's not necessary I did it for a long time with a single monitor...actually even now I technically have 3 monitors...but I only use 1 for the majority of the day.

 

The thing is though it's going to be a whole lot "it depends".  At my work, I would actually use a dual monitor setup when coding because it made it a whole lot easier; I would have the UML diagrams on my side monitor because I kept forgetting column names and table names etc.  I would also keep up other pieces of code that I would have to reference back to or snippets to copy etc.  Or have the file I need to be writing the parser for on the other monitor.  Or I would have gui stuff on one monitor and the code running the gui on the other.

 

Other examples, having things like stack overflow up or in modern times chat-gpt so you can quickly ask a question and get a bunch of code [like I know openCV decently well, but it's still quicker to ask chat-gpt to generate code to mask an image and do a quick comparison compared to another image than it is for me to look up the documentation]...and it's handy to have that there to quickly look at instead of going down to the task bar to switch between.

 

With that said, based on you setup I can understand the discomfort.  Personally if I were you I would shift the right monitor further right, so the left side of the monitor is roughly aligned with the w key on the keyboard.  Then slightly angle it; and have the second monitor next to it (like forming a slight v shape).  That way you have very minimal head movement compared to your hand position and your eye position will still be roughly sitting center most of the time even when looking at either monitor.

 

11 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Because they're relaying their experiences with multi-monitor setups for productivity, and the OP already has two monitors. The point is, more pixels = more betterer.

That doesn't always hold true, having too much stuff up can sometimes hinder your focus.  It comes down to how you organize your work.  For myself I'd rather 1 4k monitor over 4 1440p monitors.  The reason the density matters and the organization on a single monitor can mean I get more information in my focus field of view instead of my peripheral.

 

10 hours ago, LAwLz said:

For someone just starting a hobby in programming, the scenario is quite different. The initial stages of learning to code focus more on understanding basic concepts and simple projects, which can be done on a single screen without issues.

Personally I like have reference documents when learning, so I can type and implement while seeing the guide...but know it's not for everyone.

 

On 5/9/2024 at 6:14 AM, Erioch said:

Also, only psychopaths orient their monitors vertically.  I know, I work with several.

Many places and IDES for that matter have formatting of code so that single lines don't get too long [and harder to read].  As a result, many have limits of ~120 character widths before it's good practice to have a new line.  This results in a vertical monitor holding more lines of code than a horizontal one with lots of wasted space.  Also there are a bunch of other applications where having it vertical just makes the task easier than having it horizontal [data processing can be one where you have 3-4 columns of data]

 

[wasab]

For me no if I have a screen that is 34 inches. 

[Erioch]

5 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Many places and IDES for that matter have formatting of code so that single lines don't get too long [and harder to read]. 

Man, it was just a joke.

 

Except my old boss who did this because he was staring at Craig's List all day.  He was a psychopath.

[TudorF]

That's what I thought at first too when I heard of people bragging about how great their dual-monitor setups were. I thought it wouldn't be very practical, as it would make your head swivel back and forth between your main and your side monitor.

Then, at some point, I started working on a project that needed constant live updating, whose results I needed to check out after each significant code edit. And then I realised how useful a 2nd monitor was and I got one.

 

As long as you position the 2nd monitor right, you don't have to move your head much or at all. I placed my 2nd monitor at a slight angle and very close to the main one and most of the time I don't even have to move my head, I can just turn my eyes to one side and see the result of a change immediately. Another way is to keep your visual focus somewhere in between, so that you can look a bit to one side at your main monitor and also slightly sideways to your second. It can work that way too. No need to move your head at all.

 

And it feels like such a relief to not have to split and tile multiple windows on the same monitor or to switch from one window to another to see some results.

So yeah I would say a dual setup can be very helpful if you do it right or in a way that works for you. Not sure if absolutely necessary, maybe not so much if you're working with compiled code, so you can't have any immediate feedback from saving your edits. It depends on what kind of coding you're doing and which workflow it needs to get from editing to seeing the results.

[wasab]

more importantly, get RGB, or else your code will never compiled because lack of RGB will bottled neck your code at the circuit level. 100% scientifically proven.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

my setup:

34" 21:9 horizontal -> two programs: IDE/code on the left half and on the right something else. Could be a datasheet. Could be documentation. Could be some other code. Could be the graphical interface. Could be a different program.

25" 16:9 vertical -> webpages, documentation, MCU/sensor datasheets, ... which isn't constantly looked at but viewing a large section of text at once is a benefit (no scrolling with the mouse meaning you can stay focused on the code). 

 

besides the digital displays:

sharpie to draw/write on the glass desk

for more in depth thoughts pen and paper

printed copy of a critical section of a datasheet 

 

 

If I could change it:

I would keep the 21:9 and 34" as main display.  32:9 is wider than the comfortably useable field of view (if there is a second monitor).

For the second monitor I would replace the 25" 16:9 with an 16:18 LG dual up: https://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-28mq780-b-dualup-monitor

 

 

TL;DR For you: No hardware in the world makes you a better programmer. If you are anyway in the market for a new display take a look at 1440p 21:9 displays. With 16:9 you can't have two programs side by side. The extra width of a 21:9 makes all the difference.

[Brian McKee]

I've been a single monitor user forever. I do not like multi monitor setups and never will. If I need to have multiple windows up I will have multiple windows up.