{"id":637,"date":"2009-05-19T15:20:08","date_gmt":"2009-05-19T15:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/?p=637"},"modified":"2009-05-19T15:33:49","modified_gmt":"2009-05-19T15:33:49","slug":"multiple-monitors-aid-productivity-and-debugging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/19\/multiple-monitors-aid-productivity-and-debugging\/","title":{"rendered":"Multiple Monitors aid Productivity and Debugging"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re not using more than one monitor, you are missing out big time. \u00a0For one thing, some research by the University of Utah<\/a> found that using two monitors increases productivity 44%. \u00a0There’s a good summary and more comment on this on the coding horror blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A huge benefit of multiple monitors for Macro Scheduler<\/a> developers is that it makes developing and debugging automation macros a lot easier. \u00a0When I’m building a script that controls another application I will often put the Macro Scheduler editor on one monitor and the application I’m automating on another. \u00a0I can then see both side by side, so I don’t need to switch focus back and forth. \u00a0I can run my macro as I’m developing it and see the script at the same time as the results. \u00a0If I need to debug I can step through the script and see the progress of the script at the same time as the outcome without the changing of focus effecting it.<\/p>\n

Debugging a script<\/a> that simulates a user and needs to change focus can be a bit of a conundrum, since the act of debugging introduces delays, allowing more time for events to complete, and causes loss of focus. \u00a0In Macro Scheduler there’s a “Refocus Windows” setting in the Debugger<\/a>, but even that isn’t enough in some cases. \u00a0Being able to work on the macro and see the target application at the same time without either interfering with each other is therefore the best solution. \u00a0<\/p>\n

If you don’t have a PC or video adaptor that can support more than one monitor you could use ZoneScreen<\/a> along with a laptop or second PC to act as your second screen. \u00a0A single monitor big enough to let you put the editor and target apps side by side without them overlapping would work too.<\/p>\n

If you’re stuck with a small monitor and simply can’t have both editor and target application visible at the same time – you may be at a client’s site or working on a notebook – and need to debug code that needs to see the screen, don’t forget you can also set and run to breakpoints. \u00a0With a breakpoint you can step through the code and at any time run to the next breakpoint, allowing the macro to whizz through the code to that point without switching focus back to the editor between each step. \u00a0So for crucial sections of code which need to, say, capture a screen or scrape some text, it can be very useful. \u00a0Once the script reaches the breakpoint you will be returned to the editor where you can continue stepping line by line, or run to the next breakpoint or end.<\/p>\n

In my opinion multiple monitors are an absolute must. \u00a0But\u00a0there are limits<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re not using more than one monitor, you are missing out big time. \u00a0For one thing, some research by the University of Utah found that using two monitors increases productivity 44%. \u00a0There’s a good summary and more comment on this on the coding horror blog. A huge benefit of multiple monitors for Macro Scheduler […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,5,6],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":646,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mjtnet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}