Is using a widescreen monitor in portrait orientation more effective for coding? [closed]

Question

In the very near future my development setup will be upgraded and part of the deal will be dual monitors (yay!)

At least one of the monitors, possibly both, will be widescreen.

I've heard of developers using a second monitor, especially a widescreen monitor, in portrait mode. It allows for many more lines on the screen (albeit narrower) and runs a bit like having a long page of code.

Does anyone out there use this and think it's more effective?

Seigel

Fun fact, look up the Xerox Alto on Google. The first gui computer had a portrait screen. – Onetime

1) With vertical you have a higher range to match your neck which is a huge ergonomic advantage. 2) Most codes don't have long lines, so a horizontal screen is a waste of space and more importantly less distraction. You're purely focused on what you need to see. 3) Scrolling vertical feels more natural than scrolling horizontally. 4) Having that said, there may be instances where the software you are using has multiple panes and horizontal would be better. – Brookhouse

Answer 1

Since you shouldn't write functions that are longer than a screen, making the screen much longer is a little bit of cheating, isn't it? ;)

Anyway, I found portrait mode not really better when coding, and only with my old 17" widescreen in portrait mode was viewing / editing documents better. With two large screens in landscape mode, You can put two pages on a screen when viewing documents, and have many tool windows open at both sides of the IDE's text editor. So no, portrait mode is not better, unless you have four of them to make up a really large screen (there was a photo of such a setup on a Microsoft blog, but I don't remember where).

There are some applications where portrait is still better, though, e.g. if you have to show a document in large resolution, or if you have some monitor (as in network monitor) running and want to see more lines at once.

Opposite

I agree with your point on function length, but being able to see lots of functions without having to scroll around the code can still be very useful :-) – Radiotherapy

msmvps.com/blogs/bradley/archive/2008/09/23/… – Legislation

i dont believe in absolutes. why should one not write fnctions longer than the screen? Wont downvote, but comes close to deserving a -1. – Magdala

hmmm... makes me wonder how long your individual lines of code are. Does this mean my screen should only be 120 characters wide. ;P – Sligo

Some of my lines are longer, because I hate adding line-breaks just because some arbitrary width someone deemed useful as a maximum has been reached (especially when done automatically). But then, keep in mind that more horizontal space also means more tool windows like solution explorer, or for margins with code navigation information. No IDE I ever used had really good support to keep tool windows tidy on a second or third screen, so I prefer them on the main screen. My setup today is actually one WQHD main screen and two 22" widescreens around it, with one rotated vertically. – Opposite

Do agree with previous comments, seing more than one function is extra useful – Picasso

Wide lines are not ideal, I can agree to keeping lines under 80 characters when possible. But long functions can absolutely be readable with self-documenting code, as long as the function is doing what it says it does. – Discommode

Answer 2

I actually have 3 widescreen monitors in portrait mode and yes, it's a fantastic way to work. There's so much less scrolling around and you can fit all your debug / output / reference windows on screen at once.

The problem with using two monitors is that you'll generally be working on one main one and have output (or whatever on another). If you do have two, set it up so that your primary monitor is directly in front of you and the other (less frequently used) one is off to one side. I find that to be the best way to use a dual-monitor set up as it reduces RSI from being permanently twisted to look at a particular screen.

Additionally, there are some programs available to provide virtual screen splits which I've fund very useful for large/widescreen monitor setups.

[edit] ..and yes, you should write functions short enough to fit on a single page, but being able to see more functions at any one time can often make development easier in my experience :-)

[edit2] Running Visual-Studio-esque IDEs in portrait on a widescreen monitor is fantastic when it comes to debugging compile errors as you have more useable space to see code and errors at the same time. I suppose you could argue that if you compile regularly enough though, you shouldn't see that many errors at one time? ...but who codes like that? ;-)

Radiotherapy

While seeing more code when debugging is a good thing, seeing more (compiler) errors at the same time doesn't seem useful to me. Even if I had 100 errors, I would fix them one after another :) – Opposite

There's nothing wrong with that, but quite often (I find) errors are grouped together. If you can attack them sequentially without having to swap windows, I reckon you can do it faster... – Radiotherapy

That's true, but I usually just press F4 (next error) to jump to the next one. Apart from that, I tend to have much less compiler errors since VS2008SP1, because that version highlights most errors (in C#, at least) when typing ("I know that this method doesn't return a value, I just declared it") – Opposite

Hmm.. maybe it's time I upgraded. The version I have doesn't seem to do that. I guess it could just be .net though ..? – Radiotherapy

Wow awesome setup! Mind if I ask what brand of screens those are? thanks! – Northeastward

They are DELL U2515H.. – Radiotherapy

@JonCage Nice setup! How did you get your elitebook to output to 3 screens? – Discreet

The central display is driven directly via display port. The two surrounding monitors are driven by a pair of these: plugable.com/products/uga-4kdp – Radiotherapy

Love the setup, don't get me wrong. But I've used USB to displays in the past, never the same thing. Another reason why Apple does it right, I can hook up 4 displays straight from the MacBook itself. Feel like a regular PC can't really do that without some better graphics cards installed esp on desktop versions. Not to mention I can airplay a 5th screen onto an apple tv monitor. – Centrifugate

What compiler errors? I just don't write the bugs and save myself buying a third monitor in the process. ;-) – Atiana

Once you spawn Solution explorer, Toolbox, Git changes etc side bars, you wont have any space for code on vertical setup on your VS monitor – Obreption

Answer 3

I can't imagine how that would speed up productivity. In my opinion, it is always easier to scroll up/down than left/right.

Magog

Well, if your coding style could fit within the width of the portrait mode, in theory you'd never scroll left/right and still just be scrolling up/down, just less – Seigel

or if your editor had some nifty "word wrap" feature.... – Reincarnation

This is probably subjective, but word wrap is horrible. I don't know how any coder could use it. – Magog

@Andrew: Couldn't work without it. Nothing worse than not seeing the whole picture. Messes up my subconscious understanding of the code, because I miss out on important information. Wrapping is just something to get used to. Same goes for displaying whitespace chars... :) – Sternpost

@JohnySkovdal, it's funny. 8 years laters, I now use word-wrap everywhere. My problem with it before was that my available tools' implementations were horrible. I couldn't work with it now, either, as long as it's done right. – Magog

Answer 4

It depends on which IDE you use, if any.

Microsoft Visual Studio likes to take up a lot of the width of the monitor with its “Toolbox” and “Solution Explorer”, so I find it works better on a landscape monitor. As it will not let you undock an editor window, you could not even drag a code editor to a second monitor that was in portrait mode.

Also consider how your customers are most likely to have their monitors set up. You may wish to write any UI code with the same setup, so you get a feel for what the application will be like to use.

Ladylove

From what I understand, VS2010 will be much better in this regard – Uninterrupted

Your second note is especially true for web development. – Reinaldo

Not sure what 'witch'es have to do with coding (althugh, sometimes I swear there's some sort of magic that's stopping my code compiling!)... but yes, running VS in landscape can occasionally have advantages. – Radiotherapy

Answer 5

Depends how big your monitor is. We have 1 28" monitor in landscape and 2 24" monitors in portrait which flank the big monitor.

Works great for pair-programming!

Sabir

Answer 6

At work, I run my primary monitor (secondary is the laptop screen), in portrait mode. I really like it. I've become spoiled to seeing more code at once. I don't find that it encourages longer methods at all. Occasionally, I run across code that is a bit too wide since the IDE sidebars cramp it a bit, but I largely use Eclipse (Rational Application Developer, but Eclipse-based), so s quick double-click maximizes the code window, and it's very useful. Another double-click and I have my sidebars back.

I also find it a very useful orientation for my email.

I recommend it highly.

Lexi

Answer 7

Portrait mode widescreen monitors work very nicely for edting code, thank you. However, some monitors have poor viewing angles on one dimension, which would usually be vertical but becomes horizontal in portrait mode. This can make the colours bad or unusable if everything isn't aligned correctly.

Vanhoose

This is my problem at the moment: I've one monitor in each orientation and I'm enjoying the layout... except that I have to view the portrait monitor at just the right angle or the colours go wrong. It seems to assume that you'll be looking down at the monitor. – Leisurely

Answer 8

I have never given it a try but I would imagine it would work pretty well. I personally like to keep my lines fairly short, and wide screens tend to give me fewer lines of code, so I would give it a try.

It all comes down to personal preference however, what ever allows you to be the most productive and works best for you is the way to go.

Algorism

Answer 9

For me it's not effective at all. I use IDEs, so in landscape mode I have sidebars to navigate code, navigate project etc.

Muldrow

Answer 10

It's not silly but a matter of opinion. A widescreen in portrait is very nice for writing code, code width has never really been an issue, and being able to see more line of code on the screen is always nice.

The other reason to put a widescreen in portrait is so it matches the height of your other monitor, for example a 30" widescreen next to a 22" widescreen in portrait have close to the same height.

Innocency

Answer 11

It all comes down to your preference.

I just have one big monitor at my home office.

Vaivode

Answer 12

I tried it once. I didn't like it. I usually have an IDE and IDEs are perfect for widescreen. It's faster to jump around if you can see your function list on the right, file list on the left, etc.

Also, I try to keep my functions small so this usually isn't a problem (I have dual 24"). If your functions are reasonably small, and you have widescreen, you can show two files side by side which is often more useful. Some editors allow you to split the window and scroll to two different parts of the same file. This is also very useful is far better than having 100+ lines on the screen. With my settings, I have 60 lines per screen on an editor. If I split the editor, I can see 120. If I do it again on the other monitor, I can see 240. That's quite a bit of code and generally only useful for very different parts of it.

Elodia

Answer 13

If you're working mostly with text (as most programmers or other technical folks do), or even documents, then portait mode is much more valuable. In fact, the general trend in displays is all the wrong direction: aspect ratios are squishing landscape displays to a mail slot to better fit the format of movies. Personally, I have never watched a movie on my computers (laptop or desktop), and I'm not about to start now - that's what I have a TV for!

In reality, vertical pixels are the most valuable asset in computing - do whatever you can to get more of them - you won't be sorry you spent the money! I won't even buy a laptop with less than 1024-1080 vertical pixels, since that's the minumum required to display a full page PDF at a readable resolution, and (much) more is better. (Since PDFs make up a large portion of today's online documentation/manuals, that's a very big concern.) You should only think about width after you've got enough vertical pixels.

What I really want is a 15.4" or 16" laptop with a portrait screen - these should still be wide enough to package a full-size keyboard into the base - a FlyBook-style pivot arm would be nice, but isn't required.

Gossipmonger

Well you could turn your laptop sideways like a book and then learn to type portrait with one hand. :) – Lonlona

Answer 14

I found understanding the intent of related functions are easier when you print them first on paper than understanding them directly from screen, never fails, why? Because you can easily review many lines of code at one glance, no need for incessant scrolling.

The same thing with monitor oriented in portrait mode, you can easily understand the intent of multiple related functions, re-factored or otherwise. But don't let having portrait screen be an excuse to write a function with many lines.

Writing this on stackoverflow using portrait screen :-)

I can easily see many posts at one glance :-)

Nicobarese

Answer 15

If you are working with print material, yes, as for source, why not full screen your IDE and close the task panes you do not need?

I find portrait is only useful to me if I'm working on a web site, being able to see the entire page at once helps.

Enchantress

Answer 16

I would say if the monitor is large enough you don't need portrait mode (24" and higher) for writing code.

If the monitor is smaller than that, then portrait mode is preferable.

Ideally what you would have is a single 30" (2560 x 1600) as widescreen to work on your code along with utilities comfortably open nearby and a second smaller monitor nearby to preview the results (I am speaking about web coding specifically here but it would probably apply to most other coding as well - a screen the size of your target audience's screens).

The 30" screens have really come down in price now so it's probably worth the jump up. A 24" screen does have the advantage of significantly larger text at default font sizes. The text on 30" monitors can get to be a bit of grind unless you move up to 14pt.

Good luck.

Burden

Answer 17

I have 2 19" monitors currently. One I keep in landscape and one I keep in portrait mode. I find that working on documentation or reading long web pages is easier on the portrait screen. I have used this setup for coding also and find that it does help, however it was a learned habit. lol

Gonick