Ask HN: Can Oculus Rift be used for coding?

Absolutely not, with where the SDK is currently at.

I've tried quite a few games and demos with the current SDK (the one that is publicly available,) and several of them included text in menus et cetera. It was always an absolute eyestrain and pain to read anything. Maybe it'll get better once the new version is released, which supposedly has a much higher resolution.

But I suspect even then, it'll be impractical; not being able to see your keyboard/mouse from your peripheral vision, having to move your head around to bring different parts of the document into focus, not being able to see a book/document you have sitting next to your keyboard for reference, the added strain over time, ... as well as the added complication that most people who code probably have to look at other peoples screens occasionally, talk to other people, et cetera, which will involve a lot of switching back-and-forth, which can be quite disturbing.

See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqZZKi4UHuo this video for some experience from the owlchemy lab guys, who have been using the rift extensively during development for testing their game.

On a plane, on the bus, I often find it pretty hard to open a laptop because of a too small space between seats. I remember researching HMD (head-mounted displays) few years back and I couldn't find anything affordable. But $350 for the dev kit seems pretty nice and made me wonder again.

What do you guys think?

I think its would be a great experiment! I can see this working with a XI3, some solar panels, a large pack of Li Ion/Li Polymer Batteries, and the software to have a 3D landscape for 3D desktop. Last how the hell you program? invent keyboard that require only 5 fingers in a single space... (Ender's game)

What I'm excited about for is the infinite view distance for reading. Right now I have to strain all day to view text which is far too close for my eyes. I'd love to get to focus at the horizon and still be able to read.