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

On Sunday 26 June 2005 04:35, Doug McGarrett wrote: [snip re disliking multiple head systems]

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.

Multiple heads are very useful for writing and debugging graphics or games software. Head one: the image window (or the running game display). Head two: palettes, toolboxes etc. Head three: Dev environment - source code editor / debugger / IDE etc. Head four: Web browser, news feeds, weather forecast, cluster monitoring, email, instant messaging... OK, so head four's slightly tongue in cheek, though I'm half serious even about that one :) A two head system, though, certainly improved my experience of software development a great deal, and if the software you're developing's sufficiently complex that a user might want two heads (and much graphics software is), then a developer could probably do with three. In another domain, and not from personal experience, but: people who work in finance get as many heads as they can: multiple data feeds of market information from many different places, outputs of your own models and predictions to compare, CRM info about the client you're talking to on the phone, ..... it's useful to be able to see all of that at once. A graphic designer acquaintance uses one very high quality 22" CRT to display the image he's working on, and a smaller display to hold tool windows, menus etc. For all of those applications, with all the windowing systems I've used, it's actually _easier_ to have multiple screens than just one: maximising windows and otherwise arranging stuff works very well when you have several rectangles to arrange it in to rather than just one. I'm sure there are many other examples, but it basically boils down to getting as much information as possible (potentially requiring differing display characteristics - e.g. high refresh rate vs perfect colour reproduction) displayed _simultaneously_. Alt-tab doesn't cut it. And a final point: if you're not very very rich, cost is also a consideration. I have a 2560x1024 desktop with 3D acceleration on both heads (GeForce FX5600) connected digitally (DVI-D) to two 17 inch 16ms refresh panels, for a great deal less money (The card was �130 more than a year ago, the panels about �270, also more than a year ago) than buying a 2.6Mpix panel! (Even a 1920*1200 Apple Cinema Display at �1050 has only 88% as many pixels! The cheapest display with more that I could find with a quick search is the 30" Apple Cinema Display at �1999.99, which buys a _lot_ of large high quality panels to use for multi-head). And, really finally, if one fails then you can carry on working with a quick reconfigure. I've never looked back since I switched from a single 17" display to a pair of Samung 15" panels about 2.5 years ago. -- Bill

On Sunday 26 June 2005 06.10, Stanley Long wrote:

Tim Hanson wrote:

...

I'm ready to take the plunge into double monitor-land. Intuition tells me that all I need to do is hang another video card into the chassis, hook up another monitor, fire it up, and configure it with sax2. Is it that easy?

Just about that easy, yes.

If you find an old PCI video card (or two), you can do a no-cost test. YAST doesn't care if you use different cards.

At about SuSE 8.2, YAST had a problem of not wanting to recognize the 2nd monitor if initially set up on just one head, even for dual head video cards. Also, it seems SuSE people mostly assume one always wants one wide display across both monitors. Xinerama does that combined display presentation.

CAD people want the largest possible screens for the CAD, and often prefer the separated 2nd screen for anything else that should be visible at the same time as the work layout. ie, web page catalog sheets for machinery, photographs of work being drawn, calculation tools, specification text, email or text files ...

Two separate screens (non-Xinerama) make FAST highlight-drag-n-drop transfers from one application into another. Yep, the curser carries the stuff across between monitors even though applications are limited to one or the other.

Matrox G-450/550 dual head AGP video works just fine here. Be aware that 2nd display has slower clock capability than the 1st display. http://www.varicad.com is rather useful, even if not OSS.

If two screens are not enough, try fvwm desktop w/ 6x2 virtual screens per monitor desktop and try sliding live apps from one virtual screen to an adjacent v.s.

I have been running triple head for quite some time now. (19"+19"+17") I have two graphicscards. One Matrox G400 DualHead (AGP) , and one Matrox Milleninum II (PCI) I use it for all my work (graphics, webdesign, plain surfing and chatting mostly) I have found the possibility of having for instance GIMP running in one virtual desktop with all the menus left-most, working image in the centre, and anything else i need temporarily (as docs etc) to my right, very handy and easy to work with. Also, if i look for information or is researching something on the net, i can have several windows open without having to switch between them. Sure ONE big monitor at say 1600x1200 is nice to have. But three x 1280x1024 is alot handier.. The only drawback is the space.. They take up a LOT of desktop. (I use "old" CRT monitors) I do have a new machine planned with three 16:10 Widescreen TFT's. I will of course report how that baby will be as soon as it is up. -- /Rikard " Sharing knowledge is the most fundamental act of friendship. Because it is a way you can give something without loosing something." -R. Stallman --------------------------------------------------------------- Rikard Johnels email : rikjoh@norweb.se Mob : +46 763 19 76 25 PGP : 0x461CEE56 ---------------------------------------------------------------