This Week on C9: TechFest, Windows 7, Dev Tools, and WPF in Visual Studio 2010

The Discussion

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  Nice episode (as usual), but you're not entirely right about multi-monitor support being new in VS 2010. The scenario you guys explained (about dragging tool windows to another screen) has been possible since forever. At work, I usually run Visual Studio 2005 maximized on my primary screen, with a bunch of tool windows (Solution Explorer, Document Outline, Toolbox, ...) filling my secondary screen. What's new in VS 2010 is that now you can not only drag tool windows around, but also document windows. In previous versions, the document tabs were confined to a single rectangle. You could arrange them horizontally or vertically, but only within that rectangle.

  The first tip I want to give ALL developers to massively improve their productivity, no matter what environment they use, is to use at least 2 monitors. Until you use more than 1 monitor, you have no idea what an impact it has. I've been using 2 monitors at work for about 2 years, and sometimes I feel the need for even more screen real estate.

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  ++
  
  I have 2 screens set up similarly at work (VS2005) -- now I want two widescreens ...
  
  Nice episode, as ever.
  
  Herbie
  

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  My constant complaining about it seems to have paid off: my employer finally gave in and agreed to get our entire team dual monitor setups. It really is a much, much better way to work, and one of the few things that still bugged me about my current job.
  
  Nice show again. I should give Family.show (and genealogy) another go. Ever since I found out that there was a famous 18th century sideshow midget with my family name, I've been wanting to find out if he's related...

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  That was the mighty Sinclair Spectrum that they emulated in Silverlight!

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  The first tip I want to give ALL developers to massively improve their productivity, no matter what environment they use, is to use at least 2 monitors. Until you use more than 1 monitor, you have no idea what an impact it has. I've been using 2 monitors at work for about 2 years, and sometimes I feel the need for even more screen real estate.

  
  I have two screens at work, and I nearly never use the secondary monitor. I just plain forget to use it.
  
  I think the main problem is that I'm using my laptop connected to an external screen. The laptop sits to the right and its monitor is the secondary monitor. Because I need to leave room for my mouse, it sits rather far back, making text on that screen too small to read comfortably. There is no other place I can put it, and no way to increase font size on just that screen (DPI should really be a per screen setting, but I can understand the technical reasons why this isn't the case).

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  So social desktop is yet another thing that can do what Live Mesh can do...

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  I have two monitors, but I set them up asymmetrically: one monitor assumes the normal, landscaped positioning. The other (a widescreen monitor) is aligned vertically so writing code is very enjoyable given the vertical depth (it's also great for Outlook and other apps where top to bottom reading is the order of the day). I do media encoding stuff in the smaller monitor and of course always have C9 in IE 8.
  
  Another great episode, Dan and Brian. Thanks.
  
  C

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  lol @ off topic, root access/redirected conversations. And what about these Jennifer Aniston rumous Brian
  
  good show guys.

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  Yes, thank you, that's what it was! I'd love to see that Nintendo emulator be ported to Silverlight

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  Man, who ever gave you an idea like that?!  Sounds like a progressive thinker to me... a real innovator.

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  Indeed, Max. Thanks for first determining that my oldnew monitor pivots and then for conducting the 90 degrees.
  C

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  I really don't like using one monitor because I've been using 2 for so long.
  It's not great with a laptop but it's perfect on desktop systems.
  
  Photoshop, Illustrator, Reason etc. have SO many tool pallets that it's almost a necessity.

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  Visual Studio 2010 loves WPF (and multiple monitors)

  
  

  this this a very good feature..

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  @koogle haha - I'll never tell!
  
  @charles gonna have to try that 90 degree trick myself - seems useful!

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  @Dark_Halmut perhaps - although Live Mesh still uses explicit permissioning. If social desktop allows me to just pass around arbitrary links to content without setting up permissions then it would set this apart from what Mesh provides.