Like if you’re writing an essay on paper. You have your desk covered with a reference book or two, your draft version, working version, assignment, additional clarifications and notes, … It would be such a hassle to put it all in one neat stack and search for whatever you need every time.
So programmers like to have the programming manual, design, notes, remarks from the customer, … spread out over the screen(s) instead of switching back and forth every time.
Sometimes it’s good to have one with your code, one with the running program and one with a browser looking stuff up. You can argue one or two more (like database model, expected output, …) but you barely need a whole monitor for each. The photo is just pretentious and comically overdone
It tends to depend on your branch, though, and in some fields, you really don’t need anything other than your code, because you’re not testing anything before it’s compiled anyway. For something like frontend development, on the other hand, having some extra screen space is a blessing, be it more monitors or just one bigger monitor, especially if you have the tools to easily manipulate the screen space, like automatic window tiling.
To take the frontend example further, when you have something like i3/DWN/sway or any other tiling windows manager (that’s on Linux), you can easily set up more “desktops” (workspaces), divided into tiles like the browser window (to preview the changes), your editor (to make the raw changes), and the developer tools of the browser you’re currently testing things on. Not like it’s impossible to achieve the same with any other tool that lets you create virtual desktops, but the less time and brainpower you use on switching tabs/desktops/workplaces, which you achieve by always being able to access everything you need at a glance, just kinda helps you enter the flow state - you just dissolve into the process completely because you stare at everything you need all the time.
The more you need to look at, the more you gain with these setups. The frontend example from above is a rather simple scenario, which is not too likely in this era, because you’re pretty much guaranteed to be using at least one framework, most likely with a live preview feature with real time output of the compiling results and errors. There’s no shortage of windows to open, all of which will be relevant and useful to your current task.
Either that or put some non-work related crap on the side to switch to whenever you get mad because you don’t get the result you wanted to.
one 1080p screen for code with 3-6 pages open simultaneously (approx 80x24 or 90x40 depending on whether the file tree is also open)
one 1080p screen for a terminal with 4-6 terminal sessions displayed (80x24)
one 1080p screen for reference documentation
or more 1080p screens for even more documentation as rabbit holes in documentation can go quite deep
…and that’s before even more screens for monitoring services, CI status, rabbit holes in documentation, etc.
Then there’s video chat. It gets really fun when someone asks “@inetknght, can you share your screen?” during a video call. Then I have to pick which screen gets shared and hope it’s the right one. It would suck if they how many emails I ignore. I currently have 15,070 unarchived emails in my inbox spanning over a decade. I’ll get to cleaning that inbox when the bug reports stop coming.
Plus, I sometimes run VMs fullscreen. It’s best to do that on a dedicated monitor. Especially if there’s multiple VMs running. Otherwise good luck finding the real desktop!
You just need 3 largish televisions, a small TV or monitor for the top, and stuff to mount each screen in that configuration. Your PC doesn’t need to be that good unless you are doing something like gaming, just enough to run 4 1080p windows. Once you connect them, it’s fairly easy to adjust the configuration in Windows to extend and rotate the monitors to make the setup work. Depending on how you get the televisions (you can buy them used, flat screen 1080p TVs have been popular for a long time and are relatively affordable) and how you decide to mount them, you can build this setup for only a couple hundred
people seem to forget that a 4k monitor is fine if you’re looking at it from 2 feet away, but in a vr headset it’s right in front of your eyeball. you will see the pixels
Yeah I have to imagine that most people who think working in VR is a no brainer have never actually tried it.
VR is awesome, and using a VR desktop is cool as a novelty, but even the best modern headsets get uncomfortable after more than an hour or two of use and vr pass through has its own problems in terms of accuracy and comfort
If for whatever reason your working situation was such that you physically couldn’t have a traditional setup, then yeah it might be the next best alternative, but I’ll take monitors and a standing desk any day of the week over a VR workspace.
Also, past a certain point, adding more screen real estate isn’t actually helpful. You can only actually look at so much info at a time, and having too many monitors means you’re going to be craning your neck to see the ones that aren’t in front of you. At a point, you’re much better off using workspaces with good keybindings to handle more windows
we’ll see, I’m skeptical out of the gate until reviewers get their hands on some models to play with as to whether or not it can fulfill it’s many quite optimistic promises.
Even if it does everything it says on the tin (which frankly, I’m pretty doubtful about), my other concerns are still valid here. I just don’t see what virtual screens add that physical screens don’t give you. The only real advantage to something like that is that you can work anywhere I suppose - but for comfortable computer work, you’re still going to want an ergonomic KBM setup, a comfortable ergonomic chair, and a decent desk - so even if this solves the monitor problem, it’s not likely to lure many professionals away from their desks anyways.
If others really want to work in VR, more power to 'em, but I’ve yet to see anything (even super optimistic upcoming stuff like the Visor) that makes me seriously consider ditching my Physical monitors
If nothing is squeezing my face and the screen is good enough I could see myself messing around with workflow set ups. Infinite monitors would definitely be awesome.
I have 3 monitors currently, two for coding, and one for things like spotify, discord, etc. Stuff i don’t have to access a lot basically. Also, it looks cool.
I don’t think 3 monitors qualifies necessarily as “too many” under what I was saying before - I also have 3 monitors, one ultrawide and two portrait monitors on either side. I can see everything I need with only miniscule head movements, and I make a point of keeping my main focus work on the center display, to avoid neck strain.
My point there was directed mainly at the people who want VR workspaces so they can be surrounded in a sphere of monitors
I switched from 4x 1080p displays for work (1 over 3) to a 4k, a 1080p, and the laptop screen.
The 1080p is mostly for screenshares in meetings. Since most people don’t have 4k monitors, sharing a 4k display in a meeting is a terrible experience for everyone else.
But I’d much rather have “one big display” than the same real estate on more screens. Much more flexible with layout. A 4k monitor is the same number of pixels as 4 1080p screens, and I’ve got one 43” monitor (TV) instead of four 23”.
Legitimately what is the ultrawide monitor that’s angled on the desk below the main center monitor? I’ve been looking for one of these to use for music production
I think it’s just two monitors are creatively mounted. They are just sandwiched between two desks. Ultrawide monitors are generally curved so I doubt that it’s ultrawide.
I have a guy that does this. He puts so much effort in weird mobility solutions (ie: Dual monitors on a rolling table so he can work outside sometimes) or having a setup like this with TV’s, monitors etc all cobbled together.
Would you be surprised to hear hes not the most organized or efficient.
For real. It’s so much better to think about using the screen space you already have. People can do what they want, but I am happy with one screen, a tiling window manager, and workspaces. I can have a dozen or more things going on, and have it packed on a workspace. Fullscreen a window of I need to, then pop it back.
It’s incredibly efficient. I see stuff like this, and I imagine what it’s like to have text several feet away, screens covered by other screens, lots of neck fatigue, all the monitor borders… like it’s truly bad. It feels like someone watched a lot of TV and “felt” that this was the best way to do it without trying it.
Butt I digress. It’s not my setup. If they’re efficient with it, more power to them.
Yeah im similar. I still use 1080 monitors and just 2 at a regular workspace. Its about the perfect DPI for reading text. Things like 4k just make it harder or you have to bump up the fractional scaling, in which case why the more pixels?
Im fine to keep it to a laptop monitor when im mobile, and 2+laptop monitor for email when at a desk.
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As a non-programmer - why does programmers need so much screen space?
Like if you’re writing an essay on paper. You have your desk covered with a reference book or two, your draft version, working version, assignment, additional clarifications and notes, … It would be such a hassle to put it all in one neat stack and search for whatever you need every time.
So programmers like to have the programming manual, design, notes, remarks from the customer, … spread out over the screen(s) instead of switching back and forth every time.
Sometimes it’s good to have one with your code, one with the running program and one with a browser looking stuff up. You can argue one or two more (like database model, expected output, …) but you barely need a whole monitor for each. The photo is just pretentious and comically overdone
Pretty much this.
It tends to depend on your branch, though, and in some fields, you really don’t need anything other than your code, because you’re not testing anything before it’s compiled anyway. For something like frontend development, on the other hand, having some extra screen space is a blessing, be it more monitors or just one bigger monitor, especially if you have the tools to easily manipulate the screen space, like automatic window tiling.
To take the frontend example further, when you have something like i3/DWN/sway or any other tiling windows manager (that’s on Linux), you can easily set up more “desktops” (workspaces), divided into tiles like the browser window (to preview the changes), your editor (to make the raw changes), and the developer tools of the browser you’re currently testing things on. Not like it’s impossible to achieve the same with any other tool that lets you create virtual desktops, but the less time and brainpower you use on switching tabs/desktops/workplaces, which you achieve by always being able to access everything you need at a glance, just kinda helps you enter the flow state - you just dissolve into the process completely because you stare at everything you need all the time.
The more you need to look at, the more you gain with these setups. The frontend example from above is a rather simple scenario, which is not too likely in this era, because you’re pretty much guaranteed to be using at least one framework, most likely with a live preview feature with real time output of the compiling results and errors. There’s no shortage of windows to open, all of which will be relevant and useful to your current task.
Either that or put some non-work related crap on the side to switch to whenever you get mad because you don’t get the result you wanted to.
Imagine trying to read 5 different books at once while simultaniously writing 30 books at once.
Java class names.
As a programmer:
…and that’s before even more screens for monitoring services, CI status, rabbit holes in documentation, etc.
Then there’s video chat. It gets really fun when someone asks “@inetknght, can you share your screen?” during a video call. Then I have to pick which screen gets shared and hope it’s the right one. It would suck if they how many emails I ignore. I currently have 15,070 unarchived emails in my inbox spanning over a decade. I’ll get to cleaning that inbox when the bug reports stop coming.
Plus, I sometimes run VMs fullscreen. It’s best to do that on a dedicated monitor. Especially if there’s multiple VMs running. Otherwise good luck finding the real desktop!
That monitor setup is making me feel all tingly. Legit question: how much would a setup like that cost?
Your comment makes me think you’d like this meme I found the other day
Bahaha yes exactly
I felt loneliness when my third monitor broke, can confirm.
You just need 3 largish televisions, a small TV or monitor for the top, and stuff to mount each screen in that configuration. Your PC doesn’t need to be that good unless you are doing something like gaming, just enough to run 4 1080p windows. Once you connect them, it’s fairly easy to adjust the configuration in Windows to extend and rotate the monitors to make the setup work. Depending on how you get the televisions (you can buy them used, flat screen 1080p TVs have been popular for a long time and are relatively affordable) and how you decide to mount them, you can build this setup for only a couple hundred
Can you even still buy 1080p televisions?
Trying to buy a smallish TV recently for my bedroom and most were hdready ballshit
Can find some great deals at thrift shops if you’re not too picky about resolution!
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In that case I’ll just have my hello world code floating in mid air. No need for monitors
and in a few years + a couple of days, you’ll realize that having to turn your whole head that often gets pretty uncomfortable pretty quick
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I don’t understand why it’s not a thing now. Valve Index resolution is already good enough for reading virtual monitors.
Camera passthrough a small rectangular window where your desk is at. (so you can see your hands and keyboard/mouse if you need it,
And you’re done…
It’s not there. Especially not on an index.
Even on my Pimax 8k I wouldn’t want to be working off of virtual monitors.
Also 3 2k monitors is often cheaper then a lot of VR headsets.
Check out the Bigscreen Beyond. Looks very promising with micro OLED screens.
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Current VR headsets don’t really produce text you’d want to read?
Yes they do. I currently have one that is perfectly fine readable.
Yeah, I can have multiple monitors in VR setting.
But what hasn’t happened is
1 - No one has made an app with a camera passthrough window to your desk.
2 - Windows for some reason still has a problem with multi-monitors unless you actually physically have monitors mounted.
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Didn’t the Quest Pro do that? I think AR virtual monitors on Mac was a thing they showcased.
it’ll be a cold day in hell before I strap facebook to my body.
Well, with climate change …
people seem to forget that a 4k monitor is fine if you’re looking at it from 2 feet away, but in a vr headset it’s right in front of your eyeball. you will see the pixels
Because it’s uncomfortable to have a toaster strapped to your face for 8 hours
But think about the neck gains!
i wouldn’t mind a little discomfort if it meant entering monitor heaven
I think that’s fine for a day, but 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50+ weeks a year, for 40+ years? It’s going to mess up your neck, I think.
i am already messing up my neck 8 hours a day 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year
Sounds like your system is not optimized or you need a different work environment altogether.
Yeah I have to imagine that most people who think working in VR is a no brainer have never actually tried it.
VR is awesome, and using a VR desktop is cool as a novelty, but even the best modern headsets get uncomfortable after more than an hour or two of use and vr pass through has its own problems in terms of accuracy and comfort
If for whatever reason your working situation was such that you physically couldn’t have a traditional setup, then yeah it might be the next best alternative, but I’ll take monitors and a standing desk any day of the week over a VR workspace.
Also, past a certain point, adding more screen real estate isn’t actually helpful. You can only actually look at so much info at a time, and having too many monitors means you’re going to be craning your neck to see the ones that aren’t in front of you. At a point, you’re much better off using workspaces with good keybindings to handle more windows
Visor is coming out soon. It’s AR 4k made for working. Might be cool.
https://www.visor.com/
we’ll see, I’m skeptical out of the gate until reviewers get their hands on some models to play with as to whether or not it can fulfill it’s many quite optimistic promises.
Even if it does everything it says on the tin (which frankly, I’m pretty doubtful about), my other concerns are still valid here. I just don’t see what virtual screens add that physical screens don’t give you. The only real advantage to something like that is that you can work anywhere I suppose - but for comfortable computer work, you’re still going to want an ergonomic KBM setup, a comfortable ergonomic chair, and a decent desk - so even if this solves the monitor problem, it’s not likely to lure many professionals away from their desks anyways.
If others really want to work in VR, more power to 'em, but I’ve yet to see anything (even super optimistic upcoming stuff like the Visor) that makes me seriously consider ditching my Physical monitors
If nothing is squeezing my face and the screen is good enough I could see myself messing around with workflow set ups. Infinite monitors would definitely be awesome.
I have 3 monitors currently, two for coding, and one for things like spotify, discord, etc. Stuff i don’t have to access a lot basically. Also, it looks cool.
I don’t think 3 monitors qualifies necessarily as “too many” under what I was saying before - I also have 3 monitors, one ultrawide and two portrait monitors on either side. I can see everything I need with only miniscule head movements, and I make a point of keeping my main focus work on the center display, to avoid neck strain.
My point there was directed mainly at the people who want VR workspaces so they can be surrounded in a sphere of monitors
And we will be monitored too!
I switched from 4x 1080p displays for work (1 over 3) to a 4k, a 1080p, and the laptop screen.
The 1080p is mostly for screenshares in meetings. Since most people don’t have 4k monitors, sharing a 4k display in a meeting is a terrible experience for everyone else.
But I’d much rather have “one big display” than the same real estate on more screens. Much more flexible with layout. A 4k monitor is the same number of pixels as 4 1080p screens, and I’ve got one 43” monitor (TV) instead of four 23”.
Legitimately what is the ultrawide monitor that’s angled on the desk below the main center monitor? I’ve been looking for one of these to use for music production
And is it touchscreen?
I think it’s just two monitors are creatively mounted. They are just sandwiched between two desks. Ultrawide monitors are generally curved so I doubt that it’s ultrawide.
Ah, it seems you’re right. Unfortunate. If there was a monitor in this form factor I’d instantly buy
I think it’s two monitors next to each other.
Hmm I wonder if that Sublime Text is UNREGISTERED…
Hello Wurld
Wow, what a horrible setup.
I have a guy that does this. He puts so much effort in weird mobility solutions (ie: Dual monitors on a rolling table so he can work outside sometimes) or having a setup like this with TV’s, monitors etc all cobbled together.
Would you be surprised to hear hes not the most organized or efficient.
For real. It’s so much better to think about using the screen space you already have. People can do what they want, but I am happy with one screen, a tiling window manager, and workspaces. I can have a dozen or more things going on, and have it packed on a workspace. Fullscreen a window of I need to, then pop it back.
It’s incredibly efficient. I see stuff like this, and I imagine what it’s like to have text several feet away, screens covered by other screens, lots of neck fatigue, all the monitor borders… like it’s truly bad. It feels like someone watched a lot of TV and “felt” that this was the best way to do it without trying it.
Butt I digress. It’s not my setup. If they’re efficient with it, more power to them.
Yeah im similar. I still use 1080 monitors and just 2 at a regular workspace. Its about the perfect DPI for reading text. Things like 4k just make it harder or you have to bump up the fractional scaling, in which case why the more pixels?
Im fine to keep it to a laptop monitor when im mobile, and 2+laptop monitor for email when at a desk.
bro even got the RGB soundbar ⁉️
Gotta make the machine optimized for over clocking and general “pushed and totally maxxxxx…xxed” processing specs, you need them.
It’s like speed holes for the hood of your car. The the RGB even have a speaker, which just makes them cooler