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Comment by zahlman

> The ultrawide aficionados do have a point, even if it’s not really the simple one about “old terminals” they originally thought. Our modern wide-screen displays are criminally underutilized, particularly for text. Even adding in the big chunky file, class, and method tree browser over on the left and the source code preview on the right, a brief survey of a Google Image search for “vs code” shows a lot of editors open with huge, blank areas on the right side of the window.

> Big screens are super useful as they allow us to leverage our spatial memories to keep more relevant code around and simply glance around as we think, rather than navigate interactively. But it only works if you remember to do it.

I use a single, not especially large monitor, and have worked like that essentially since I first touched a computer as a child. (Granted, today's "not especially large" monitor is much larger than the ones on the "luggable" first-generation Macs.) This is... mostly because I'm a cheapskate, but also I feel like I'd have even more trouble focusing on stuff in general with one of those massive "battlestation" setups.

And I generally keep my code inside 80 columns because I just like the aesthetic of the terminal window, and because it's an extra impetus driving my refactoring.

parent zahlman 1 year ago

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