

Ask HN: Widescreen or fullscreen monitors for programming? - codedivine

Which do you prefer for programming? Widescreens or fullscreens? I prefer a 5:4 monitor to wider resolutions like 16:10 or 19:10. I have found the excess width to be distracting.<p>What is your typical tool of choice? I typically use Vim which does not usually have the sidebars common in IDEs such as Eclipse. Does the UI of the tool may affect your choice of monitors?
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yan
I prefer widescreen with multiple windows tiled horizontally.

edit: Usually terminal+MacVim windows. Or sometimes, xcode windows, with left-
most one being the project window.

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mechanical_fish
The nice thing about the widescreen is that it fits multiple emacs windows
side-by-side, so that you can view substantial portions of more than one
buffer at once (or two substantial portions of the same buffer).

That said, the first rule of screen space is to have more of it. Whether or
not it's optimally distributed is secondary. In web development there is
always a use for more windows. (Docs, server logs, logins under multiple
identities, multiple browsers pointing to the same thing for design debugging,
IRC...)

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Xichekolas
I have Dual Dell 2408WFP's... lets me see four apps at once with plenty of
real estate.

Screen 1: Browser (showing whatever I'm working on) and gVim (with my code).

Screen 2: Browser (with whatever references/interweb material I'm looking up),
multiple terminals (tail logs or for messing with git/whatever).

I use AwesomeWM (tiling window manager), so I don't have to bother arranging
all this myself. Other tags (workspaces if you are from the gnome/kde world)
have things like Pidgin and last.fm open.

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johngunderman
I prefer one widescreen next to one widescreen turned vertical. this way I can
view plenty of code on the vertical monitor, and yet enjoy the benefits that
the widescreen monitor brings.

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TallGuyShort
For virtually any activity I would do while sitting down at a
computer/workstation, I think wide screens have a much more natural fit to a
person's eyesight. I think they're just more comfortable to look at.

On the other hand, I can definitely see a reason for vertically oriented
screens in eBook readers and some hand-helds. I can't think of a time when I
would rather have a more square screen.

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bgnm2000
I prefer widescreen, with windows tiled horizontally as well on my mac. I use
terminal with visor (google blacktree) which is sweet, and then a bunch of
different spaces - coding w/ textmate for ROR dev.

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rscott
Why isn't this a poll question?

Widescreen 22" + Macbook screen. Textmate for some things, but Xcode and its
(many) requisite windows for iPhone stuffs.

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socratees
I use a Dell S2209W 22" wide panel monitor. Its way comfortable than using
smaller monitors and i don't think i can go back to using smaller ones.

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noblethrasher
Widescreen, but I spend almost as much time in Photoshop, Illustrator and
Flash as I do in Visual Studio and Notepad++.

