Ask HN: What's so great about having two monitors?

When I work, I like to have several editor windows open, and the documentation (usually browser) open. On the first screen is where I have the editor window where I'm actually typing stuff in; on the second screen I have all the reference stuff that I can just glance at.

If you never have to move a window out of the way in the course of what you're doing, then for you it's indeed not so great. But I think it's pretty common to do this.

Also, I've worked on projects where Visual Studio or Eclipse took up the entirety of one screen, and the application in running form took up the entirety of another.

Monitor 1: Browser Monitor 2: vim, terminals

What I need is actually a Monitor 3 for reference..

To be honest, it can be tricky. I had a tough time with two monitors, initially. I would always put my irc client and instant messenger clients on the second monitor, along with whatever documentations, editors, etc that i needed. I would distract myself by always glancing over at irc. What I ended up doing to solve this was rotating my "main" monitor vertically, and use it exclusively for my main code editing window. I'd reserve the second window for documentation. I have to maximize both windows otherwise ill just get distracted by the other monitor, again.

It takes some getting used to, but I definitely get use out of the second one. Although, I'd be fine with one still. I'm a furious alt-tabber either way. ;)

Cheap way to expand screen real estate.

I find myself diffing 3 files a lot. And these files are 80 characters fixed-width. So to have the three window diff in vim means I would need at least 3 * 80 + 2 = 242 character width, and that doesn't fit on most monitors.

(Nowadays I use a 27" iMac, which runs 2560x1440 natively, so I really dont need [or use] a second monitor, but the argument still applies)

Don't buy a second monitor until you feel you need one.

When you maximise a window, it takes up the entire screen. In the case of multiple monitors, it takes up the entire screen of the current monitor it is currently displayed in. Multiple monitors are therefore a hardware method of window management without having to manually resize them.

In Windows 7 you can now dock windows to the left or right. This has worked really well for me on a single 24'' at 1900x1200 resolution. In the past this was not possible out of the box.

I prefer having virtual desktops with customizable keyboard shortcuts to multiple monitors.