[HN Gopher] Show HN: Use an old tablet as an extra monitor
___________________________________________________________________
Show HN: Use an old tablet as an extra monitor
but only for terminal and curses apps
Author : alex028502
Score : 212 points
Date : 2023-10-06 11:36 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| trevcanhuman wrote:
| I've used Weylus [0]. It works over LAN, lets you control the
| mouse from your tablet. Sometimes it's laggy, but you can
| configure the resolution so it's not using too much bandwidth.
| I'm not sure if it's stable at all. Haven't used it on a regular
| basis.
|
| [0] https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus
| DakotaR wrote:
| In the same vein, Remote Touchpad [0] is fantastic if you don't
| need an extra screen.
|
| [0] https://flathub.org/apps/com.github.unrud.RemoteTouchpad
| aaron695 wrote:
| Computers still only have three mainstream input devices,
| keyboard, mouse and gamepad after 60-80 years
|
| I'd try and bring the addition inputs a smart phone has to
| computers, like touch.
|
| I know there are programable keyboards and many other things. But
| no one has cracked it yet.
|
| It's a cool project as is. Just an idea if you were thinking of
| iterating forward.
| ben_w wrote:
| Given how much we use them to talk to each other, I'm surprised
| you're not counting the microphone; likewise video calls and
| the camera.
|
| And given how phones and tablets are so much more common than
| laptops and desktops, touch screens.
|
| Arguably there's also passive continuous inputs like GPS and
| heart rate sensors, accelerometers, etc. -- mainstream, but I
| doubt it was the category you had in mind.
| ericrallen wrote:
| There are lots of computers with touch capabilities out there.
|
| From the gesture support on Apple's trackpads to touch screens
| like the Surface (and plenty of other laptops with touch
| screens).
|
| There are also stylus inputs and things like Wacom tablets that
| have been around for many years now.
| kedean wrote:
| There's also microphones and cameras that can act as inputs,
| it just turns out they don't offer much power over kb/m.
|
| But really, the problem being solved by OP was not enough
| outputs, rather than not enough inputs.
| Kerrick wrote:
| I collect and use as many input devices as I can, as a bit of a
| hobby. It all started when I was younger and got a CueCat. Now
| I'm up to webcams, microphones, fingerprint sensors, many
| keyboards, mice, trackpads, trackballs, many game pads,
| MakeyMakey, a VR system, CharaChorder, MIDI keyboard, floor
| dance pad, Wacom tablet, BlackMagic keyboard with jog shuttle,
| and HOTaS. I've still got my eye on a macro pad, MIDI Fighter,
| and a racing wheel.
| jvm___ wrote:
| I picture you having them all hooked up at once, one-man band
| style.
| Kerrick wrote:
| I actually do have many of them attached at once. I have an
| extra-wide desk and _two_ PCIe expansion cards that provide
| 7 USB ports each, with their own USB controllers to solve
| bandwidth /timing issues.
| myself248 wrote:
| Heyyy, CueCat club! Funny that QR codes are everywhere these
| days and people actually scan them; Digital Convergence was
| just ahead of their time.
|
| I have keyboards with mag-stripe readers, keyboards with
| smart-card readers, keyboards with assignable and
| relegendable keys (meant for point-of-sale usage), 6DOF 3D
| "SpaceMouse" devices, a 5-axis Lexip Pu94 mouse, I've mapped
| an R/C quadcopter transmitter into a wireless joystick [1],
| and last year I finally bought my first USB gamepad. (To play
| Stray.)
|
| I was recently digging into some details of the BlackMagic
| keyboard and it sounds like it's super difficult to remap the
| jog dial for other uses, what do you use yours for?
|
| 1: https://hackaday.io/page/11784-rc-transmitter-tx-as-a-
| virtua...
| Kerrick wrote:
| I use mine for the most boring possible answer: exactly
| what it was marketed for. I edit videos in DaVinci Resolve
| with it. :-)
| landtuna wrote:
| I had a boss who was pretty excited about CueCat. It's funny
| that it took another 15 years to catch on as smartphones and
| QR codes!
| Netcob wrote:
| > I have a couple old kindle fire tablets lying around. One of
| them has a battery that lasts about ten minutes.
|
| You might want to check if the battery is going "spicy pillow".
| seanthemon wrote:
| Lithium hotpocket
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Yeah for this reason I replace the battery of old tablets that
| I use as control panels, with a DC-DC converter.
|
| Simply removing the battery isn't enough because most tablets
| refuse to run on usb power alone.
| danielvf wrote:
| URL to an example of what you use?
| cheeko1234 wrote:
| https://www.instructables.com/Powering-a-Android-Device-
| From...
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/13ovuqn/ive
| _...
|
| You can use an LM2596 to step down the voltage.
| londons_explore wrote:
| You can also replace the battery with a much smaller one -
| eg. a coin cell, and it'll normally run fine.
| [deleted]
| CYR1X wrote:
| Would be better if the LVDS ribbon cable connectors for all of
| these devices was more standardized, and you could just buy an
| adapter to HDMI/Display Port. These actually exist but AFAIK
| there isn't just one LVDS ribbon cable standard or even close to
| one.
| [deleted]
| squarefoot wrote:
| If manufacturers released enough details about their devices and
| drivers, then unlocked the bootloaders, we could do a lot more
| things than a 2nd monitor with old tablets. There are piles of
| them taking dust in drawers, or worse in landfills because of
| forced obsolescence.
| seltzered_ wrote:
| Worth mentioning this discussion that honed on latency specific
| when using Linux (Wayland) as a host os :
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31409010 ->
| https://tuxphones.com/howto-linux-as-second-wireless-display...
| (2022)
| gourneau wrote:
| If you are on Windows and have extra laptops of devices hanging
| around SpaceDesk https://www.spacedesk.net/ to a great free app
| (not open source). I use it with on my Windows Dev machine (WSL2
| FTW) and use old laptops as external displays. It works well even
| on WiFI.
| PickledJesus wrote:
| Thanks, I just got SpaceDesk working on a cheap Amazon tablet
| over USB-C (after realising I had to set PTP mode on the
| tablet...) Should work really nicely as a second monitor when
| travelling, I have it on 60fps and high settings and the
| latency is barely perceptible.
| duffyjp wrote:
| I was excited seeing iOS 9.3+ on their requirements listing,
| but after digging my useless but 100% functional iPad 2 out of
| storage it won't install the app. :(
|
| I do use the built-in iPad as a second screen thing in MacOS
| with a still supported iPad on occasion and that works quite
| well.
| fudged71 wrote:
| Any options for an ancient iPad?
| obmelvin wrote:
| I've used duet display on a first gen ipad pro 9.7". can't
| speak to using in older iPads, but TBH I don't recall having a
| problem with it
| ascagnel_ wrote:
| If you're on a recent macOS + iPad, there's Universal
| Control[0] (I use this as a way to have chat/mail on a second
| monitor). If you don't mind some noticeable latency, you can
| use it as a second display via Sidecar[1]. Finally, you can do
| the same thing described in the article with any terminal
| emulator app and SSHing into the remote system (I've had luck
| with Prompt[2], which is available as a one-time $15 purchase).
|
| [0]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212757
|
| [1]: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380
|
| [2]: https://panic.com/prompt/
| zyxin wrote:
| From the Readme, their eventual plan for the project is to be
| able to serve the client through the web browser which would
| mean that almost all tablets would be supported.
| cracauer wrote:
| Tablets should have a HDMI/Displayport in so that you can
| directly use them as displays.
| mcpherrinm wrote:
| You can plug a USB HDMI capture dongle into tablets and do
| this.
|
| Any webcam viewer would probably work to view it, though
| there's dedicated apps intended for this like
| https://orion.tube/ on iPad. I know there's options on Android
| but don't have a modern android tablet to test them.
| radicality wrote:
| Do you know how come that app doesn't work on the IPhone 15
| Pro?
|
| I don't have the iPad, but just recently got the 15 Pro, and
| it's able to do a bunch of things via the usbc port (wired
| Ethernet, SD card reading, driving a Pro Display XDR etc),
| but I wasn't able to do something like that Orion app is
| showing.
|
| Was thinking of pretty much same use case as shown in the
| app, where I could plug in an external camera and use the
| phone as a high resolution / high-nit viewer display. Are
| these apis only for iPadOS because the iPhones are missing
| some required hardware for it?
| zackmorris wrote:
| I'd even go one step further: we should have had a standard
| communications protocol like TCP for all devices. So a display
| would show up as just another device that we could use to
| read/write bytes. All devices would have a standard queryable
| HTTP/HATEOAS self-documenting interface. And HDMI/DisplayPort
| or USB A/B/C/.../Z would all use the same protocol as gigabit
| ethernet or Thunderbolt or anything else, so the bandwidth
| would determine maximum frame rate at an arbitrary resolution.
| We could query a device's interface metadata and get/send an
| array of bytes to a display or a printer or a storage device,
| the only difference would be the header's front matter. And we
| could download image and video files directly from cameras and
| scanners as if they were a folder of documents on a web server,
| no vendor drivers needed.
|
| There was never a technical reason why we couldn't have this.
| Mostly Microsoft and Apple blocked this sort of generalization
| at every turn. And web standards fell to design-by-committee so
| there was never any hope of unifying these things.
|
| Is it a conspiracy theory when we live under these unfortunate
| eventualities? I don't know, but I see it everywhere. Nearly
| every device in existence irks the engineer in me. Smartphones
| and tablets are just the ultimate expression of commodified
| proprietary consumerist thinking.
| marwis wrote:
| > There was never a technical reason why we couldn't have
| this. Mostly Microsoft and Apple blocked this sort of
| generalization at every turn.
|
| On the contrary, Microsoft tried really hard with
| UPnP/PnP-X/DPWS/Rally/Miracast*/etc but nobody was
| interested.
|
| *BTW any Windows 10+ device can act as a Miracast sink
| (screen) so you can link Windows laptops/tablets as extra
| screens without any additional software.
| takluyver wrote:
| In fairness, there are standardised protocols for a lot of
| these things already, even if they're not all part of one
| giant meta-protocol. Cameras in particular have mostly
| appeared as a folder full of files, with no need for special
| drivers, for something like 20 years.
|
| There's definitely no need to invoke a conspiracy for the
| lack of 'one protocol to rule them all'. It's often hard
| agreeing on a standard even for a relatively limited topic -
| trying to agree on one for all electronic communications for
| all devices is probably impossible.
| lexlash wrote:
| The meta protocol exists! Sort of. Check out the USB-C
| specs, which tried to answer a ton of this. It's taken
| years for power delivery to reach the point where I don't
| feel compelled to carry a USB-C power meter to check cables
| and chargers in the wild. My Switch still requires some out
| of spec signaling to charge/dock properly.
|
| Meanwhile, half of the stuff I get off AliExpress only
| charges from A to C cables due to a missing resistor.
|
| I don't think the markets (yet) incentivize
| implementations. Like how when my mortgage gets resold,
| autopay will only transfer over if it's once a month;
| anything more complex and I have to endure a new account
| setup and a ton of phone trees. Same with paperless
| settings. The result? I just live with the MVP.
| lexlash wrote:
| Extending your simile, some devices need the equivalent of
| UDP in order to function within the size/power envelopes that
| make them useful. Bluetooth vs the nRF24L01+.
|
| There are standards like this in highly interoperable
| systems, but there's a cost paid. USB-C power delivery
| negotiation (beyond the very basic 5V3A resistor that people
| omit) is roughly as complicated as gigabit ethernet. That
| compute has to come from somewhere and it turns out customers
| won't even pay for that 5V3A resistor - they'll just use A to
| C cables and replace it when it "won't charge" from a
| compliant charger. :) Average person probably only cares that
| USB-C can be flipped and that the connector feels less
| brittle than microUSB.
|
| UPnP exists. Lots of what you describe exists. Between bugs
| in implementations becoming canon and a lack of consumer
| interest, no real conspiracy required. At least smartphones
| and tablets are trending in a good direction - Apple's latest
| supports basic off the shelf USB-C Ethernet, displays, hubs,
| and so on.
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Agreed in general. However, I wouldn't stop anyone but having
| my monitor traffic go over the network would lead to a lot of
| congestion, especially wireless. Prefer a separate cable as
| the grandparent alluded.
| salawat wrote:
| -HTOP/Nethogs for system in question -Same for any intervening
| boxes -logs for middle boxes -web browser for reference lookups
| -window for manpages script noodling -window for debugging -vim
| -throw in some VM's and those hosts may need to be factored in
| -frigging email/chat/calendar clients if working with other
| people.
|
| Yes, I _can_ technically do all of those with one screen, and
| some screen /tmux magic. Fuck no, I do not want to. KVM can get
| you some ergo for mux'ing multiple boxes to a single screen.
| However, I'd much rather have multiple screens to partition my
| working set across.
| boredemployee wrote:
| Thats a cool idea, I have a Fire tablet (and a Kindle) that I
| still don't know why I bought it.
| mavhc wrote:
| I'd just run screen on both computers in multisession mode, and
| make the PC version tiny
| jchanimal wrote:
| I love the suggestion to rebuild it for the browser. A tool like
| that could be generally useful. Anyone know of one?
| williamstein wrote:
| Cocalc uses a websocket and xterm.js to implement terminals on
| a remote server. Each terminal session corresponds to a file
| (with extension .term), so multiple clients can open the same
| session by opening the same file. If you type in one session
| then all sessions will see the typing at the same time.
| (Disclaimer: I wrote this. It's way too heavy for this use
| case, but might be an amusing demo or proof of concept for
| somebody to play with before writing something new.)
| roessland wrote:
| tmux + ttyd (or gotty) could be used in a similar way. But it's
| not like an extra screen, it's more like mirroring a terminal
| to another device.
| guraf wrote:
| Someone asks for a webpage and not only do you propose tmux,
| you also acknowledge it doesn't even do anything like what's
| asked.
|
| Typical Linux user.
| sigio wrote:
| I prefer a single display and use virtual desktops to seperate
| tasks/apps which each fill most/all of the screen realestate
| sakopov wrote:
| On a similar note, you can use your old phone as a Streamdeck
| alternative using TouchPortal [1]. It's not free, but it won't
| cost you much and it works surprisingly well.
|
| [1] https://www.touch-portal.com/
| [deleted]
| FrustratedPers wrote:
| Tried doing this for years, only got more and more frustrated
| with whatever wacky software I had to install to make this work.
| jrm4 wrote:
| Love this sort of hackery, but also -- it just kind of shows how
| very goofy all the limitations we have on this are.
|
| If you go with the idea that a computer should be a general
| purpose machine -- we have so many things that _aren 't
| computers._
|
| "Wireless external monitor" should be a trivially easy built-in
| to all operating systems, and that it isn't is kind of
| ridiculous.
| hiccuphippo wrote:
| My phone can easily mirror the screen to my TV but my PC can't,
| not with the built-in software, not with 3rd party apps. It's
| all so tiresome.
| throwaway167 wrote:
| I was thinking exactly the same when reading this, but wireless
| programmable led display keyboard buttons. I think these should
| exist, but don't know of any easy implementations.
| lexlash wrote:
| RIP to FireWire target disk mode for Apple laptops and target
| display mode for iMacs.
|
| The new docs promote AirPlay screen mirroring and networked
| shares over usb-c but it's nowhere near the same. :/
| joombaga wrote:
| You can still do target disk mode over usb-c. I used it when
| I switched from Intel to M1.
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| momirlan wrote:
| i use TeamViewer to log remotely into my working laptop from an
| Android device
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Unfortunately, I find systemctl hard to type. If you start/stop
| services somewhat frequently, I recommend this alias:
| alias sc='sudo systemctl'
|
| This has the nice property in that it mirrors the "service
| control" (sc) utility in later versions of Windows NT that I grew
| up on. Should work in bash/fish.
|
| I have these others also when doing service development, because
| many of the subcommands start with 'st*' and also having to
| change the second parameter each time is annoying. These work in
| fish, but are easily ported: function sce
| --description 'systemctl stop # end' sc stop $argv;
| end function sci --description 'systemctl status # info'
| sc status $argv; end function scs --description
| 'systemctl start # start' sc start $argv; end
| sfink wrote:
| I agree, though I find journalctl to be even worse to type.
| thesnide wrote:
| I would really be interested for a X11 server on that tablet.
|
| So I can do a simple DISPLAY=tablet:0 to send the window to and
| enjoy output
| gatane wrote:
| https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=x.org.server
| Vinayakd wrote:
| [flagged]
| Havoc wrote:
| Can also be used as a janky screen pikvm style with the right
| adapters
| rasz wrote:
| Its one of those 'because I can' hacks. Perfectly fine old 15-19
| LCD monitors are ~$10 at goodwill type stores, and free if you
| ask around relatives/friends for old gear.
| nunez wrote:
| I don't know how folks can use a ton of screens like this. I had
| four 32" monitors at one place and it was incredibly
| overwhelming.
|
| I've been rocking a single 27" screen for years. Even that's too
| big. I prefer 24" screens but it's difficult to get a good one.
|
| I can hold context in multiple virtual spaces, and key bindings
| make switching between them super quick.
|
| I guess this is in the same camp as "I don't understand people
| who leave 75,000 tabs open."
| brettermeier wrote:
| I'm more of the 75,000 tabs faction, which is probably why I
| use 3 monitors. I prefer to have all the windows I'm actively
| working in open in parallel. With one monitor, the handling is
| too fiddly for me and the windows are much too small. If only
| one thing is in the foreground, I sometimes lose the context or
| the constant jumping back and forth annoys me.
|
| Edit: Just looked it up, there were like 30 tabs ;) But also
| more browsers, because it gets too much in only one.
| bemmu wrote:
| I'm doing some light gamedev, and with two 28" screens I feel
| like I could use a little bit more screen real estate.
|
| The situation where this still feels lacking is when I'm trying
| to solve a problem and have a 3D game view, source code, object
| list and properties, debug output, debugger (watched variables,
| call stack) on one screen. Then on another screen I'll read
| documentation of whatever I'm trying to fix.
|
| Productivity clearly had a jump when I added the second
| monitor, and I think I could get some boost still by either
| having larger monitors, or perhaps one big bigger curved one
| with two monitor inputs.
| maccard wrote:
| Also games. 3x24 inch screens felt like the best balance to
| me. I had 2x27 and 1x 24 for a while, but I dropped back to
| 1x27 and 1x24 and prefer it. That's what I roll these days
| NikolaNovak wrote:
| It depends somewhat on your job.
|
| When I was a techie I tried to be focused on one thing at a
| time as much as possible. Still liked two screens though!
|
| In many other roles though, having your email and your working
| document open, or having excel and PowerPoint open, or help
| docs and your code, or the operational plan and the server
| terminals, et cetera, are massive efficiency multipliers.
|
| Basically I'm at a place where one monitor feels
| claustrophobic, especially if it's just the teeny laptop
| monitor. 2 are enough. 3 is nice. I wouldn't know what to do
| with 4 32" ones either!!
| Rudism wrote:
| I agree. My opinion is that once you've trained yourself to use
| virtual desktops efficiently, multiple monitors becomes more of
| a hassle than a benefit.
|
| I think multiple monitors is the solution for people who would
| rather solve the problem by spending their money instead of the
| effort it takes to configure and become accustomed to switching
| between virtual desktops. Given that it is a strict biological
| limitation that the human brain can only focus attention on one
| thing at a time, I don't believe there is any valid argument
| for why moving your eyeballs between physical monitors is any
| better than hitting a key combo to switch between virtual
| desktops on a single monitor once those key combos have become
| muscle memory. Additionally, the number of physical monitors
| you have is limited by how much money you have to burn and how
| much physical space you have to place them, whereas virtual
| desktops are theoretically unlimited.
| sfink wrote:
| They're not all for the same purpose.
|
| There are some things that don't need to be actively looked
| at most of the time, but need to be visible so that you know
| when something happens that you _do_ need to pay attention.
| You could do it by polling--put it on a virtual desktop and
| switch to it every so often--but that adds latency and can be
| even _more_ distracting than having it visible in the corner
| of your eye. Think of things like Element or Slack or a
| dashboard that tracks bugs /issues/alerts.
|
| Then there are reference displays that you look at on demand.
| Most of the time switching virtual desktops is good enough
| for this, but not if you're following along with a sequence
| while actively working.
|
| Then there are things that are just big. Perhaps you're
| displaying an autogenerated graph, or you're using an
| information-dense tool (maybe with multiple relevant layers).
|
| Not to mention wanting to consult things while on a video
| call, which constrains the screen to use based on camera
| positioning.
|
| I very actively use virtual desktops, yet I have two external
| monitors in addition to my laptop screen. Most of the time, I
| really only make use of one of the external monitors, but
| situations arise that require both. They arise frequently
| enough that I notice the lack (eg when I'm fighting with my
| configuration and only one is working, or I've loaned one
| monitor to someone else). And when I'm mobile and down to
| just the laptop screen, I definitely notice and even adjust
| what I'm working on to avoid losing productivity.
| hotnfresh wrote:
| I rarely feel a need for even two monitors unless I'm doing GUI
| development. Much of the time I just work off my laptop
| directly, not plugged in to anything (probably should knock it
| off for ergonomics reasons, though....)
| danieldk wrote:
| Same, one 5k 27" screen and I'm completely happy. I might
| consider 6k screen, but definitely not multiple screens.
| nunez wrote:
| If it's the Studio Display that you got, I got that same
| monitor a month ago and I absolutely love it.
| c-hendricks wrote:
| I'm similar. The idea of dedicating desk space, two extra
| cables, the compute to power the displays, and electricity, to
| show something like email seems incredibly wasteful to me. Not
| to mention, do people that do this not feel cramped when they
| don't have their full setup?
|
| I've also never been a "maximize the window" type of person.
| Buying an ultra-wide was a huge help tho I will admit.
| croisillon wrote:
| almost everybody at my job has 2 screens, i'm sorry but i only
| have one brain
| maccard wrote:
| I've got a keyboard and mouse, but spend most of my day using
| just the keyboard. That doesn't mean a mouse isn't useful
| brainlessdev wrote:
| Totally off-topic, but while reading this I was thinking "that
| is exactly what I would say". Then I saw your username... it
| looks like we share not only a taste for monitors but also a
| surname!
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| ryukoposting wrote:
| I'm a 1.5 screens at work (laptop + 24" external monitor) and 1
| screen at home person. Life has enough distractions.
| threeio wrote:
| Doesn't always work this way but:
|
| Smaller Monitor: Comms (email, calendar, slack, etc) -- often
| times I have this vertical (top email/cal and slack below) and
| it doubles for viewing dashboards for stats during
| troubleshooting.
|
| Bigger monitor: Focus work (terminal, development env, etc) -
| normally split in 3 columns
|
| Laptop Screen: Browsing (research, WebUI interfaces,
| entertainment, etc)
| switchbak wrote:
| I think a lot of this depends on how you arrange your windows.
|
| I've used a bunch of monitors in the past, but found that my
| neck started to hurt after looking to the side too much. And
| having the bezels right in the middle of your view makes the
| most valuable real estate effectively unusable (unless you have
| 3!). 4 32's would be way too much for me, no doubt.
|
| Having a single widescreen monitor has been better for me. Most
| of the time I'm not maximizing its use, but when I want to
| combine a bunch of views at once, it's quite valuable. Like
| when I'm running a performance test while keeping tabs on a
| bunch of monitoring.
|
| I think you're right that virtual workspaces are great,
| especially if you dedicate them for discrete purposes.
| jmbwell wrote:
| I have my primary display in the center, directly in front of
| me. Whatever needs my primary focus for my current task goes
| there... Outlook for email, vscode for code, Terminal for
| admin, web browser when web browsering, etc.
|
| To my left is for monitoring things, previewing things, and
| reference. Browser for checking changes to code, logs for
| monitoring changes to system, documentation for thing I'm
| working on, etc.
|
| The result avoids the bezel in my direct field of view,
| avoids strain and RSIs from awkward posture, and,
| incidentally, kinda degrades gracefully when I'm at home with
| only one display or traveling with only my laptop's display.
|
| But the second display to my left allows my peripheral vision
| to monitor things for changes without diverting my focus, and
| helps me keep documentation or source material for comparison
| handy without having to switch away from the thing I'm
| working on.
| Dries007 wrote:
| What resolution & DPI is I think far more important than how
| many displays.
|
| I have 4. 1x 1440@27", 1x 1440@24" and 2x1080@24". If I had
| known 1440@24" would die out, I would have bought 3 of those
| instead.
|
| For me the ideal would be a 16:10 24" screen with the same
| density as the 1440 16:9 models. It's the perfect size &
| resolution for desktop use in programming / engineering. I'd
| buy 3 of those, but they don't exist from reputable brands.
|
| I don't want a single ultrawide because I like the (narrow)
| physical borders. It lets me organize stuff just how I like it.
| It also makes working with different sources easier. My desktop
| is plugged into everything, but I can put a laptop or embedded
| board onto one of the side monitors if I need to.
|
| How I've set up mine:
|
| - Middle 1440: Main work, usually fullscreen IDE with 2 columns
| of files open.
|
| - Left 1440: Documentation, usually 2 windows side by side.
|
| - Top left 1080: Media, usually in the background. Needed chat
| programs (different customers use different tools) side by
| side.
|
| - Right 1080: JIRA, task lists, notes, research, running tests,
| running instances of programs being developed, ...
|
| This avoids me having to use virtual workspaces to layer
| context. It's like a great big tool wall in a workshop:
| The idea is simple: First Order Retrievability. That is, you
| should never have to move one tool to get to another. That in
| turn affords the fastest, most efficient way of working.
| ~Adam Savage
| skydhash wrote:
| LG has 4k 24 inch monitors. The DPI is amazing (not so much
| for color fidelity).
| maccard wrote:
| >to layer context
|
| Such a good way of capturing it.
| tetraca wrote:
| You categorize your screens. One screen for dev work, one for
| communication, and one for documentation/browsing. That way you
| can alt+tab between your primary work tasks with a tiny eye
| movement.
| dheera wrote:
| I used 2 screens for a while but I went back to 1. I would do
| 3 or 1 but not 2. 2 was bad for my neck. And I can't fit 3
| screens on my desk.
| RealStickman_ wrote:
| I've had a single monitor for a long time, but I've recently
| come around to dual monitors. It just makes working with
| additional information on the second screen so much easier.
| Indo spend more time shuffling windows around now though
| bdcravens wrote:
| Most of the time I'm using 3: 2 big screens (often browser on
| one, IDE or similar on the other) and my laptop (usually
| terminal, or Slack, or a similar auxiliary app). It feels no
| more complicated to me than swiping between phone apps, and
| definitely simpler than someone with a carefully curated WM
| setup.
|
| My screen size has gone up over the years, but that's more a
| matter of aging eyes than information density. :-)
| whiddershins wrote:
| For film composers (niche, I know) each screen can represent a
| distinct task all of which are happening simultaneously.
|
| So:
|
| - video reference
|
| - synthesizers
|
| - daw/waveform playback
|
| - score
|
| I wonder what other professions might find value in a similar
| setup.
| dylan604 wrote:
| i'm in the same vein but more film/video post production in
| general. most of the time, in addition to how ever many
| monitors attached to the computer, there is at least one
| reference video monitor (that can be properly calibrated)
| that only receives a video signal from whatever software is
| being used. with only 2 computer screens, one screen has my
| timeline and preview windows. the other monitor will have all
| of the bins and effects controls and other various windows.
| if i'm in a real edit bay with dedicated scopes i'll prefer
| those, but if i'm slumming it at home i'll have to make room
| for them on one of the monitors too (usually tabbed behind
| the source monitor).
| yieldcrv wrote:
| I think thats good because you can manipulate the second
| screen without juggling the mouse pointer
|
| I think those are the best use cases, input is a much greater
| bottleneck with additional screens if its limited to keyboard
| and mouse modifying those windows
| RugnirViking wrote:
| ive always said that going from one screen to two is a big jump
| in productivity. Comparing things between two windows is a very
| common task in almost all workloads. However I think three is
| already too many, and brings something between barely any
| benefit and a net negative. More than that seems superfluous,
| even for cctv or stock brokers. Attention can't be split that
| easily. Personally for most of my working life ive had three,
| as in two 24" and a laptop, but I usually either just have
| spotify fullscreen on the laptop all day or turn it off if I
| can.
|
| As for putting two windows side-by-side on a single screen? I
| don't know, it always felt clunky to me. A lot of things are
| designed to be landscape 16:9.
| [deleted]
| maccard wrote:
| My preference is 3x 24 inch screens. In theory, I'd like one of
| them to be a tablet or a touch screen device that sits
| underneath the other two.
|
| It basically boils down to one screen for "the
| app/website/whatever" one for code, and one for a reference. I
| _can_ hold contexts, but I also have tools to do that for me.
| Beijinger wrote:
| When I had to work on my desktop but had to watch some
| educational videos on the side I just used
| https://remotedesktop.google.com/ Since the videos were web based
| it worked quite well.
| citiguy wrote:
| I've used Duet for this in the past. Works great by allowing me
| to extend my laptop screen with my ipad screen.
| https://www.duetdisplay.com/
| cramjabsyn wrote:
| Macos has the built in with sidecar. Just attach an ipad and
| select it as the external display
| gomox wrote:
| Sidecar is very glitchy for anything but casual use.
| dheera wrote:
| A long time ago I used to use Synergy and someone had written a
| Synergy client or Cyanogenmod variant of Android. I don't know
| where all that is now after Synergy imploded and Cyanogenmod
| imploded.
| angra_mainyu wrote:
| I've done this with RDP + Android tablet on Linux. Performance
| depends heavily on your tablet's hardware, enormously so.
| folmar wrote:
| RDP is client-heavy, some flavor of VNC should do fine even on
| the most underpowered hardware (provided you are not watching
| videos).
| seizethegdgap wrote:
| For Windows, the paid program SuperDisplay will also allow you to
| use an Android device as a second screen, works wireless or over
| USB. My Galaxy Tab S7+ is great as a second monitor.
|
| https://superdisplay.app/
| lkois wrote:
| Or the free Spacedesk, does the same.
| lvncelot wrote:
| A good SuperDisplay alternative is something I really miss on
| Linux. Even over wifi, the latency is imperceptible to me, and
| being able to use the pen input (with pressure and tilt) is the
| cherry on top.
| butz wrote:
| Got to mention that you can use your tablet on Linux GNOME DE not
| only for terminal: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2022/06/use-ipad-
| as-second-monit... . Still waiting for even better solution, like
| streaming games to such second tablet "monitor".
| bogdart wrote:
| It doesn't work on X11, and the cursor is not showing. But if
| don't need it, works pretty well.
| elkos wrote:
| does this work in KDE too or is there a similar solution?
| butz wrote:
| Here's what I found for KDE, but did not test it myself:
| https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454645#c5
| bogdart wrote:
| It works for me, but quite unstable.
| A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote:
| Nice. I just dusted off wife's kindle in an attempt to repurpose
| it into a weird 'i m in a meeting' sign and I may end up looking
| at your project more closely now. Much obliged!
|
| <3
| bdcravens wrote:
| I never keep tablets around long - I usually sell them (and all
| electronics) once they're no longer useful.
|
| eBay is my Marie Kondo :-)
| bazmattaz wrote:
| Same. I'm a big believer of one man's trash is another man's
| treasure.
|
| I hate having gathering dust in my drawer if I can sell it for
| $50 on eBay and make someone happy in the process
| omneity wrote:
| This is cool. Maybe for copying you could spawn a text editor in
| your main screen with the content of the terminal in it?
| thanatos519 wrote:
| Good idea. I did this with bash and awk and xev and xdotool
| instead of a custom program.
|
| You can always use screen's cut-and-paste for stuff within
| screen, and screen's copy buffer and xclipboard for the rest.
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