[Stratoscope]

I'm 71 and still actively programming. One thing I did years ago was to get a pair of single vision glasses set up for my eyes' distance from the laptop screen (about 20"). These changed my life.

I use progressives for everyday activity, but at the computer I switch to the single vision. I have a triple-monitor setup: the 15" 4K display on my ThinkPad P1, and two 24" 4K monitors (currently LG, but I've used similar Dell and ViewSonic monitors in the past).

The external monitors are mounted on Amazon Basics arms made by Ergotron. I prefer the Amazon Basics because they have a matte black finish instead of the silver finish of the Ergotron-branded arms. They are identical otherwise.

One 24" monitor sits directly above the laptop display, with their left edges aligned. The other sits to the left of these in portrait mode. This is ideal for reading documentation, especially PDF files.

I run the ThinkPad at 300% scaling and the larger monitors at 200%. All three are adjusted to be at about the same 20" distance from my eyes. The ThinkPad display is in the usual tipped-back laptop position. The horizontal monitor above it is closer to a straight up-and-down angle (but not quite). The portrait monitor is also tilted back a bit. The idea here is to have the "normal" for the center of each monitor point to my eyes.

It's also important to keep the prescriptions updated for both the progressive and single vision lenses, especially if you are in your 40s when your vision changes more rapidly.

[CoastalCoder]

I appreciate the tip.

I am using single-prescription lenses, and I update them every 1-2 years (via Koch Eye Associates). I order lenses at the specific focal distance of my monitors.

For some reason, in recent years my eyes never feel comfortable with the updated lenses. Not sure if my eyes are getting less forgiving w.r.t. focal distance, or if something is goofy about the lenses that Koch is selling me.

I think my next step is to try another optometrist / glasses-vendor.

Another possibility is that I'm using a big monitor, so the distance from my eyes to the screen-center is pretty different from the distance to the screen-edge. I may just need to try smaller screens or (yuck) curved screens.

[shortcake27]

One possibility to look into is convergence issues. The solution to presbyopia is to prescribe positive lenses. However, positive lenses force your eyes to converge more. So if you have convergence issues, these can make things worse.

This appears to be the issue I have. I’ve been to a few optometrists and they really don’t want to hear about it. To be fair, regular optometrists probably don’t have the margins to deal with problems like this. It really requires a specialist such as an orthoptist.

For now, I just manage best I can. I can only use my reading/computer glasses for a very short period of time before my eyes hurt like crazy. Then I revert to my distance glasses where I can barely read the text, but at least my eyes don’t hurt.

[Stratoscope]

> Another possibility is that I'm using a big monitor, so the distance from my eyes to the screen-center is pretty different from the distance to the screen-edge.

You may be on to something there! About 10 years ago I visited the Google office in Washington, DC to finish up my work on the 2012 general election map. They had a 32" monitor for me to use, and when I put it at the same 20" distance as my laptop screen I had exactly the same problem. The difference in distance from center to edge was too much for me to keep it all in focus.