I'm thinking this would be nice. I know it sounds like one of those idiot things that I use to post about, but think about it. Why not put in a category for themes that are multi-mon enabled? It would save some of us so much time! Input from the rest of the community is encouraged, but I'd hope that the webmasters would see the reasoning behind this.

The reason it was not added is this. LiteStep as a whole is multi-monitor enabled. Themes that do not work on multiple monitors are coding errors/decisions made by the themer for that theme. Normally this falls in the error side of things. So you will have a lot of themers post "multi-monitor compliant" themes that don't really work. Its an easy fix to do and with the low amount of multi-mon users the addition didn't seem to be the best course of action.

btw...this belongs in the Site section...not the general section.

How do non-multimonitor themers ensure compatability?

Negative co-ords? $resolutionX$? $resolutionY$?

I have no means of testing multimonitor compatability, so what is the secret configuration?

When you pick a co-ord you stick with its style. If you use negative, you use negative for everything. (If you use positive, you use positive for everything.) By using both parts of the theme end up on one monitor and parts on the other.

I sorta meant: If I specify a co-ord of $resolutionX-4$, would that be 4 pixels from the right edge of the first or second monitor?

I want to say its the second monitor but Im not 100% certain.

no, using the $resolutionx$ or $resolutiony$ variables make the theme elements stick to the main display, usually. and the problem with making themes multi-monitor compliant is orientation. setups with the main monitor on the left and the secondary on the right is easy to code for. however, if you have it backwords (main on the right, secondary on the left) you pretty much HAVE to hardcode some of the settings, which can then break compatibility for single-monitor systems, or even dual-monitor with the "traditional" setup (main on left, second on right). however, last I heard, I thought they were trying to get all the multi-monitor bugs worked out for 0.24.7 final. however, we've been running with RC3 for over a year, so who knows when Final will be out... (not that I'm pushing you devs, I know you guys are working hard, and that you also have RL's :P )

sorry, by that I meant that it's the case with single-monitor and dual-monitor with the main monitor on the left systems, only, not dual-monitor with the main on the right.

So basically no theme is 100% single/multi monitor compatable.

:(

A little off topic, but: what do people use secondary monitors for? Problably a dumb question, but I'm curious. I mean, extra screen space is always nice, but is it really worth the bulkiness, heat emission, power consumption, etc? I tried using my old 17" as secondary monitor for a while, but I never felt I had any particular use for it (not to mention that my desk started creaking under the load of two monitors, of which one is an old 21" LaCie that probably weighs as much as a small aircraft...)

So they can pretend they are Neo. Litestep Hacker themes and dual display is fastest way to get 1337.

:D

Bah. l337ness is the least of my worries. Writing papers is. It is amazingly useful when prepairing papers or discussion topics, because you can read one section of your source while typing directly into another without limiting your viewing to half a screen or so. I know it doesn't SOUND amazingly helpful, but man, once you're use to it, you can't live without it. When I'm not working on papers/school work, I use it for keeping my multimedia on the right monitor (non-primary), and do most of my browsing/work on the left (primary). I've found a number of themes that are at least "normal" multimonitor setup compliant (primary->2nd), but like the man said, there aren't many (if any) that are default (2nd->primary) compatable, which is actually the reason I got rid of my 3rd monitor. I'll admit that the 3rd monitor was just extra, but it was mainly for my friends to be jealous. And to play UT on. Man, was that SWEET for awhile.

well, single-monitor compliance is CAKE...multi-monitor though, yeah, is a little more complicated. that's why most themers who are going for multi-monitor compliance don't take into consideration right monitor as main systems.

well, at work I use it because it's much easier (as well as more productive and more organized) to have the extra screen space. at home, because I have a game up on one screen, and a web browser, or chat windows, or whatever, open on the second screen.

There are some modules that try to support multimonitor/negative positioning in some form or another.


From what I have asked others before, here is my understanding of positioning modules on two monitors the primative way; note that I could be wrong:

Primary monitor:

left: 0
top: 0
right: $ResolutionX$
bottom: $ResolutionY$


Secondary monitor: (set evars as necessary)

1) If you set your secondary monitor to be on the right of the primary,
left: $ResolutionX$
top: 0
right: $ResolutionX+Monitor2Width$
bottom: $Monitor2Height$
^^
This left-to-right side-by-side layout is preferable for themers.

2) If you set your secondary monitor to be on the left of the primary,
left: -$ResolutionX+Monitor2Width$
top: 0
right: -$ResolutionX$
bottom: $Monitor2Height$
^^
This is a supposedly not good at all to use; a recipe for disaster, etc.


This is all based upon the conjecture that positive coordinates have an origin at the top left of the primary monitor, whereas negative coordinates have an origin at the bottom right of the combined screen area available.

Presumably most users are likely to set monitors side by side in the manner of 1) and not diagonally, so offscreen positioning into negative space can probably be exploited for sliding animation trickery and the like if the layout can be determined.

sounds like there is no easy way to support multiple monitors (other than standard left=primary right=secondary)

Sorry matrix d00dz :(

:p

If people with dual monitors are indeed Matrix nuts, there's a much easier way of explaining why multi monitor support is hard to implement:

"There is no secondary monitor."

:P

lol, that was so bad :p, Took me ages to figure out that little jokette :D

I have two 19" sony lcd's I mainly use the second mon
for recording in pro tools as my mix window and use the other
as my edit window.

I am no geek squad member,
Some apps like dreamweaver need more room to work with.

I built designed4 with 1 and it worked fine
after using two monitors. got lucky :)

I mainly use the second mon
for recording in pro tools as my mix window and use the other
as my edit window

Musician, eh? Cool. Me too :)

LiteStep is only BARELY multi-monitor capable. About the only thing that you can do reliably in a theme is to use positive coordinates for everything and stick to the primary display. (don't dock anything to the desktop / always on bottom) If you're a scripting genius, you might be able to reliably put stuff on other monitors, but you still have to ask the user where they are.

For the most part, it's not the themers' fault, it's the module coders' fault. Many problems do come down to theme bugs, but it should not be as hard as it is. Using negative coords is a theme bug? I don't think so.

Personally, I use multiple monitors (right now 3, but one is on another machine) so I can see my code (at least 2 files at once), project documentation, and API documentation all at the same time. Putting it all on one screen is a great way to make a 19" monitor feel like it's a 12".

Xlabel is a good module with multimon, since it interprets negative cordinates according to the primary monitor. And since you can hook (almost) all the other mods in it, you can use it to position all the stuff in the monitors. With a good bit of scripting it works very well... (but as Rabidcow said you still need to get the monitor info from somewhere)

There's MonitorInfo-1.0.1 but I haven't seen it used.

Perhaps it could be part of some user script that's a part of whatever config tool a future distro would have...

A more general question is:
Should/could multimonitor support be considered for inclusion in OTS3?

tnl: Definetly :) especially if MonitorInfo.dll works

West & Immortal: Me too! :D