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Ask HN: IDE Right Screen == Better Problem Solving Skills?

by glynjackson on 10/7/15, 8:43 AM with 11 comments

I'm curious to find out if my experience is atypical with coders. Like most developers my workstation setup consists of dual/triple monitors.

I've found (or at least perceived) when I'm displaying the IDE on the far right my problem solving/coding skills are better. Moving my IDE to the left feels unnatural for some reason and I don't appear be as productive. Unscientific I know, I measured this with the amount of tasks closed in a day.

Does anyone else find this? What screen do you have your IDE/Editor on?

  • by insoluble on 10/8/15, 12:39 AM

    Aside from habit alone, such as how scrollbars are customarily at the right, this phenomenon may result from psychological or even neurological factors.

    Psychologically, the side of your dominant hand is where you prefer to keep things you see as dangerous or more difficult to control. This is why a male and female couple usually walk with the male at the right. The male's job is to protect the couple from outside intruders, for which the male needs his good hand free and facing the outside world. The male's left hand is on the more trustworthy, less dangerous side -- by his female partner.

    Neurologically, the left visual field (left of the visual fixation point) is processed directly by the right cerebral hemisphere, and vice versa. In normal mammals, the two hemispheres share data efficiently. For some individuals (particularly "split-brain patients"), this sharing may be more or less interrupted, in which case it would be better to keep the logical information in the right visual field so that the left cerebral hemisphere can process the data effectively. After all, the left cerebral hemisphere is made to process serialised data, such as source code.

  • by brudgers on 10/7/15, 10:41 PM

    If there is a difference, I'd suspect it to be the result from a combination of environmental, ergonomic, and physical factors. The subjective experience could be shaped by slight differences between monitors; directional glare, acoustic comb filters and air drafts; habits related to posture, ocular dominance, or physical ailment; or a preference for interacting with the IDE via mouse or keyboard. Which is to say, that a good first working hypothesis is that the phenomenon is limited to "this place, this work, this time, this equipment" rather than generalizing to an intrinsic property of the person.

    My advice: keep working with the IDE on the right so long as it makes you happy.

    Good luck.

  • by shoo on 10/7/15, 9:31 AM

    some of my most productive times have been away from the computer -- thinking very hard how to do things. perhaps walking around the block, or staring at the wall, or standing in front of a whiteboard.

    personally, i used to have a pretty nice setup with one screen and a tiling window manager. with one screen you don't have to move your head at all, just use the keyboard to flicker between desktops. perhaps this works better with plain terminals / terminal editors, where you don't lose any screen real estate (in comparison, using e.g. visual studio is pretty nice, but on a small monitor it is sort of like looking at a text file through a porthole)

  • by sjs382 on 10/7/15, 1:18 PM

    Running an iMac (23") with a second display (23"). Second display is on my right, and there's a wall on my right, too. Keyboard is positioned directly in front of the iMac (left) and the 2nd display is slightly tilted toward me.

    My usual setup is:

    Browser on right. Mail and IM in a different desktop also on the right.

    Sublime, iTerm, SourceTree and other dev tools on the left.

  • by hanniabu on 10/8/15, 2:48 AM

    I always assumed that your dominant side is the side you should keep the screen of focus on. I'm a righty and always have my editor on the right screen, even when I'm doing a lot of research. Then again, my right screen is nearly right in front of me with the left screen offset and angled just next to it ~my 11 o'clock.

  • by wvenable on 10/7/15, 4:55 PM

    My IDE's are always on the left and my other materials on the right. But I haven't felt very productive since I got my new 24" dual monitor setup. Perhaps I should move my IDE to the right and see what happens.

  • by stevenspasbo on 10/12/15, 5:18 PM

    I recently moved desks and had to switch the side my external monitor was on. I have to admit I felt "slower" with the new setup, but after a few days I felt like I was back to normal.

  • by percept on 10/7/15, 1:16 PM

    Sounds worthy of a more formal study. (If I had to bet, I'd say there's something to it.)