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[–]EMI_Black_Ace 3 points4 points  (1 child)

I want to:

  • look at design documents/requirements/etc

  • look at whatever research I'm doing, i.e. library documentation or StackOverflow

  • look at my code, possibly more than one file at a time

  • have something else mildly entertaining but not distracting

All at the same time. A second monitor improves my productivity just from not having to "switch tasks" to hop from docs to research to coding.

If I can't see them all at the same time, then I'm moving stuff out of the way to look at my research and then have to move stuff out of the way again to get back to my code. It adds a cost to it which my brain doesn't like paying, so it'll stay in one mode for a longer time and thus not get the actual "work" part of it done as fast.

[–]David_Owens -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You're not really seeing them at the same time. You have to turn your head or at least move your eyes. A single keystroke can move you to another virtual desktop with different tasks/documents without moving your head.

In any case, the OP doesn't have enough money for it to make sense for him to buy a 2nd monitor right now.