Hey now, I do "low-level" programming, and you can pry my extra monitors from my cold dead hands!

As much as I love printed materials for reference, unless it came that way, I'm not going to use a ream of my own printer paper for every reference manual or datasheet I have, when I could just have 1 monitor for coding and 1 with all my documentation readily available!

I think the inflection point for me preferring reference manuals on computer was when the majority of them transitioned away from being scans to actual documents with hyperlinking in the ToC and index. Too convenient (although searching PDFs still kinda sucks in all the viewers I've tried).

And this applies to other domains. I do grant writing for nonprofit and public agencies. It's easy for me to have a main document, an RFP, an organizational background file, and a research website (like the Census) open at the same time. We use 27" iMacs and side monitors for good reason.

Even in writing a novel, it's often easy for me to have a character list, a plot outline, and a main document open simultaneously. It's often not "necessary," per se, but it can be helpful.

> Full-stack and front end developers can really improve productivity drastically and reduce ALT-TAB Keystrokes and back-and-forth scrolling when developing and testing web-pages, responsive sites as well as web applications that they use an IDE for.

Or by installing Hyperswitch, so you can switch between multiple open windows of the same app. Built-in alt-tab of OS X deserves to rot in a hellfire, same for the "multiple virtual desktops" crap which I have not found a way to completely disable in over two years.

And for getting multiple apps (e.g. iTerm with an editor) and a browser side by side on the same monitor, install SizeUp and split, rearrange and shift windows with a breeze.

That OS X does not come along with anything that resembles Alt-Tab, Windows+(arrow key) for window shifting or even fucking Windows+L for screen lock is... unbelievable.

on Mac:

* Win+L equivalent : Ctrl+shift+power (actually puts to sleep, but also achieves locking). I usually assign the hot corner for sleep/lock, often faster than keyboard. You can also remap keyboard to Ctrl-L (or whatever) for sleep/lock, using free OSS Karabiner.

* Win+arrow equivalent: NONE - but there's free OSS alternatives, such as Spectacle.

* Alt-Tab: Actually I like Mac's version than Windows. Also Mac has Cmd-backtick, which doesn't exist on Windows. What bugs me about Windows' Alt-Tab is that it cycles through minimized windows, which I want to ignore.

> actually puts to sleep, but also achieves locking

Does not work if you do not have password on screensaver enabled like I do. Windows+L is always locking.

> What bugs me about Windows' Alt-Tab is that it cycles through minimized windows, which I want to ignore.

... which makes a mouse neccessary to "revive" minimized windows. Thanks but no thanks... people always wonder why I'm so speedy using a computer, it is because I do most things using a keyboard and accomplishing more tasks than they do simply by avoiding aiming with a mouse cursor.

Yep I have two 2560x1440 dells at work, I have a really nice laptop I work on at home but at the office you'd need a crow bar to remove my screens.

> I simply have to refresh the screen

Or with hot loading, just do nothing (which is really an awesome dev experience)

Yeah I was thinking of that too, but didn't remember what it was called, so didn't say it. Very cool. Esp when developing static website (Hugo) it feels magical to see you changes appear instantly on the 2nd screen :)

(also called livereload)

On my old Atari STE I had editor open in one window and browser open in another. Every time I hit save, the browser autoupdated the homepage. That was very comfortable and slightly ahead of times... :-)

Sadly I did not have two monitors so it was quite tight on the 640x200 px screen...

I miss my Atari :(

Game developers get lots of productivity from using multiple monitors. Working with something like Unity3d on a single one is quite uncomfortable: you need to constantly switch between Unity itself, code in IDE, and your game's window.

If you are doing UI stuff that does graphics dual screens are very good. On one screen the debugger, and on the other screen the target application. That way you can debug each drawing step.

For Windows paint event work non-overlapping windows are practically a requirement - if you let another window on top of the one you have paused in the debugger, the OS will draw over it and lose the current paint state.

Then there are scenarios which require two screens on two machines. With "synergy" this can be really seamless with one keyboard / mouse.

That's the first time I've ever seen someone else mention "Synergy"

I used it back in college When I had a spare laptop I wanted to use as a second display. It seemed like it was doing really hacky things behind the scenes but was probably the easiest instance of "Software Remote KVM" I've ever seen.

Synergy is still around, and still works remarkably well. The mouse scrolling between OSes is a bit janky still, but still something I can use every day.

Furthermore, full screen, maximised browser is the default and how the customer will see the page. So you want your debug tools in one place and your target browser experience in its own window on its own screen. This is totally valid 1366*768 is probably the better target resolution for regular sites. You also need a real phone to develop on too.

I do agree with the author but not all use cases are the same. You could not apply this workflow to live editing of a football match where a gallery has scores of monitors.

Work is also collaboration and two monitors helps. You can explain things in a show and tell.

While I might only need one window to code and test/run things (using command line and vim), I still have to communicate. Even if you want to use only one program, if you are on a team you still have to tab back and forth to handle communication with whatever client you use to chat/send email to each other. I'd guess even the most die hard of terminal-only programmers still have to use a second application to manage communication.

I'd work in an actual terminal (as in, not in a windowing system) if not for the browser. Still, on 24" 1440p it makes no sense to have a full-screen terminal.

If you're on Linux, a tiling window manager solves most of these issues with a single monitor.

>On a single monitor, this means endless clicking, scrolling back and forth on the page you are trying to debug, next think you know, your fingers and wrists are sore and you haven't gotten too far in your work and your coworkers tell you that you have RSI.

Trust me, neck problems due to constantly looking at 2 monitors is as bad.

> If you're on Linux, a tiling window manager solves most of these issues with a single monitor.

So I told myself for a while as I used a tiling wm with a monitor, and then switched to two, and now using three.

There's something in the human brain (or at least, this human's brain) that makes it easier to keep a mental context on something when you can physically separate it rather than virtually separate it. My browser (regular spanish/english text, light work) is on my left, my code (IDE/text editor) lives in the middle and music/test suites/compilation pipelines lives to my right.

When I use my laptop, despite having as much resolution as 4 monitors and using almost the same exact tiling configuration, I find it much harder to focus as comfortably as I do on the desktop.

Mind you, I admit to very rarely making full use of the third monitor, but the second one? Absolutely, wether it's backend, frontend or whatever.

If you got neck problems from moving your head 15 degrees side to side every once in a while you have much bigger issues or your monitors are positioned incredibly strangely.