Dual Monitor Setup for Programming

During my recent trip to Vietnam, I worked on dual monitor machines at EastAgile and loved it. Once I was back in India, I missed the screen real estate and got a dual monitor setup for my macbook pro. Sadly it wasn’t easy but totally worth it. I had to buy a USB display adapter to get the second monitor hooked up to the MBP. I also bought two identical Samsung B2230 monitors (1920×1080). Overall this gives you 3840×1080 resolution. The only downside is that since the second monitor is on a USB display card, it does not support OpenGL. Here is a picture

I have been using this setup for a few weeks now and I think it has almost doubled my productivity. One big benefit is that I can have code (vim) and terminals (log and shell) on one monitor and I can have two browsers (firefox for debugging and chrome for reference) on the second monitor. This makes sure that I never have to alt-tab to switch to browser or other windows needed for programming. This in turn makes sure that I don’t lose focus. Overall I have found this to be really productive.

Go ahead and try this setup out if you think you can be more productive than you currently are. You may wanna try three smaller monitors instead of two really large ones. Some people have found it to be better. Also be sure to read monitor reviews before buying the monitors.

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!