On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 23:35:19 -0400 Doug McGarrett <dmcgarrett@optonline.net> wrote:
Many years ago, I had a (very expensive) DOS CAD program at work, which could produce a color image on one monitor, and text on another. I found it to be quite distracting, and I went back to one monitor. It would seem to me, with the very high definition and large (21" and beyond) monitors that exist today, that there would be no real reason to go to two monitors. The mechanical engineering programs (like Pro-E) seem to work well on a single monitor, as well as the electronic CAD programs like Agilent/EEsof, etc.
I would like to hear from those who disagree, along with their reasons. I would expect those who disagree would have used a 2-monitor system for some time, of course.
Some years ago, when I was working in Software/Architecture, I had two monitors on my desk. (In fact, I asked my boss for a third, but he wouldn't authorize it!) I basically found 2 monitors indispensable. I used the one to *enter* the work I was doing, and the other to *look up* references that told me what/how to do the entering. The beauty of two monitors is that I can switch from reference material to work surface by moving my eyes, WITHOUT needing to perform any distracting window-focus-change gestures. This parallels how I did technical work before the advent of terminals -- I would write in a notebook, but have reference manuals open on my desk. (In fact, at the end of a spell of work, I would have my desk *covered* with materials - often with some lying on top of others!) So what has always been important to me is the amount of viewing "real estate". And I've found that the price of a single HUGE monitor is higher than that of two reasonable-sized ones. These days I'm retired, and have to pay for monitors out of my pension. (I did actually buy two of the same monitor, but then got another system, and put the second monitor on it. The graphics cards in my systems all *do* have multiple head support, so I could drive two monitors if I didn't mind the purchase price thereof.) For me, it has *not* been difficult to view text in one window, and associated graphics in another. These days, working with a single monitor, I make *extensive* use of multiple virtual desktops. Each application I use, I run in its own separate virtual desktop. Then, to switch between applications, I switch desktops. That's easier (and more "logical" to my mind) than bringing different windows to the foreground in the same desktop. But I REALLY REALLY miss using the extra "real estate" of two monitors -- for example, I use a large enough font that to view both this response and your original post, I have to "scroll" back and forth. SO MUCH EASIER if I simultaneously had your post on one screen, and was composing my text on another screen, with BOTH of them viewable simultaneously. mikus