When editing code, I'm not browsing StackOverflow or switching to StackOverflow so much that the actual Alt+Tab-ing to the browser window is the bottleneck. And when I do Alt+Tab to the browser window, I usually search Google for what I want to achieve, and yes, most of the times I end up on StackOverflow, but sometimes other sites, most notably Wikipedia, can help me better. Periods when I'm on StackOverflow are more of a small research session within a development session. Quick look-ups constitute a smaller fraction of my Google searches, especially when I work in an environment/language I have grokked.
Pasting from the answers I see even less useful. What was the last time you actually pasted verbatim a code snippet from a StackOverflow answer? In 95% of the cases, I read the answer to get an idea and then implement it appropriately in my code. Such copy/paste solutions are most often just hackjobs full of kludges that are worth marginally more than a pile of dog shit.
Perhaps my wording wasn't clear enough—I was actually saying that minimize-maximize time wasn't a bottleneck in my case because I don't switch so much.
But I agree with you, multiple monitors would help tremendously. Even more so when doing some web development work, when changes can be immediately previewed.
It depends what language I'm working with. Is it one I've used for years? My questions tend to be much more abstract and structure oriented, and I rarely copy anything verbatim.
However if it is something I have less experience with, or just starting to learn, most of my queries I am concerned with the exact details and end up copying verbatim more frequently.
When editing code, I'm not browsing StackOverflow or switching to StackOverflow so much that the actual Alt+Tab-ing to the browser window is the bottleneck. And when I do Alt+Tab to the browser window, I usually search Google for what I want to achieve, and yes, most of the times I end up on StackOverflow, but sometimes other sites, most notably Wikipedia, can help me better. Periods when I'm on StackOverflow are more of a small research session within a development session. Quick look-ups constitute a smaller fraction of my Google searches, especially when I work in an environment/language I have grokked.
Pasting from the answers I see even less useful. What was the last time you actually pasted verbatim a code snippet from a StackOverflow answer? In 95% of the cases, I read the answer to get an idea and then implement it appropriately in my code. Such copy/paste solutions are most often just hackjobs full of kludges that are worth marginally more than a pile of dog shit.