And if I close my *left* eye...

Alias on 2007-03-18T16:42:21

Ever since my second "real" programming job, when I managed to sweet talk my boss into getting what I wanted hardware wise, I've used two monitors.

Mostly that means one monitor with the editor and version control GUI, and one monitor with the "other" program of the moment, be that a debugger, browser for testing, email or whatever.

I've become so accustomed to it that I find I get much less done now without it, which is probably also why I find I do very little actual coding at conference with just my laptop (it could also be that I just enjoy the chance to talk to people, or a bit of both).

But until today, when I realised that I'm currently sitting EXACTLY between the two screens, I never really though about which SIDE of the two monitors I should have the editor on, and which I should have the other program on.

I wonder if there's any left-brain vs right-brain effects that might kick in and impact the quality or quantity of code/work generated...

Does anyone use a double monitor setup? If so, what do you put on which side?

---

Depends on which side my Pair is sitting

dws on 2007-03-18T17:13:37

I've used dual monitors for several years. What's on which side is largely dependent on which side whoever I'm pairing with is sitting. Absent that, factors like time of day (sunlight patterns) come in to play. However, I keep interruptions (email, IM) on a laptop off to the far right out of my direct line of vision.

Left for terminals, right for browser

dagolden on 2007-03-18T21:12:55

I hadn't thought about the left/right brain connection. I've been using a dual-monitor setup for less than a year. I find I keep terminal windows and editors on the left and a near-full-screen browser (documentation and other reference material) on the right.

That may be a hold-over from my single-monitor days or may have to do with where the menubar is. Keeping a browser window handy seems like the luxury, so it lives on the "extra" screen to the right.

I haven't figured out what to do with IRC/AIM or other little distractors -- minimized entirely perhaps!

editor right

uwevoelker on 2007-03-19T12:11:38

I've been using dual head for years now. The browser (and mail) is on the left head and the editor on the right head. I have never tried it the other way round.

Having used Ion3 and now WMII2 as windows manager I always use fullscreen (sometimes tiling for terminal windows).

Laptop?

jdavidb on 2007-03-22T21:01:00

I haven't tried out a multiple monitor setup since the days when Apple could handle that seamlessly and Windows hadn't even heard of the idea.

But I just opened up my docked laptop so I could email some of our hardware guys and tell them what model they had issued me. The screen popped on, and I thought of this journal entry, and I wondered: do you know if it's possible for me to use a laptop LCD screen and a monitor screen simultaneously as two independent screens? Or is what's on my video port inextricably tied to what's on my LCD? My laptop sits just to the side of my monitor and this would be perfect for trying out two screens.

Of course, when I closed the laptop, it went to sleep. Why on earth would a docked laptop need to go to sleep when the lid is closed? Sigh...