Minimum Startup Overhead: Coffee Shop Programmer

Trying to do high concentration work in a coffee shop would be impossible for me, personally. I don't understand how one could do development. The places I go the general idea is that people are interruptible and open to some conversation and maybe a date.

I have used hotel lobbies. Find a spot to sit and hack the guest wireless for access. The decor and furniture at a nice hotel can be enjoyable. Sometimes you can find an open conference room.

The public library is an obvious option, but they tend to close too early.

Another option is to sneak into local college libraries, or even unused campus classrooms with wireless access.

So I often throw in a keyboard and mouse. The microsoft 'comfort curve' is particularly well-suited for this, though it is a bit long.

Lets not forget desktops are cheaper than laptops so you could do it cheaper by buying a desktop and a coffee machine ;)

Often, I feel like I can only have so many finger macros loaded at once. I do a lot of switching back and forth merely to reference stuff. Error messages, output, data structure definitions, grammars, etc-- if you're trying to modify code based on information like that, it helps a ton to be able to see that and your code at the same time.

When working on multiple projects, it's easy to forget about stuff that gets buried; especially buried under explorer windows.

If you're waiting for an important email or IM or something, being able to see activity on a separate screen out of the corner of your eye is often preferable to (a) periodically checking or (b) setting some sort of flashy or loud message box alert

If you have server monitoring requirements, or stock market monitoring requirements... the list goes on. Screen real estate is important, so long as it's organized appropriately.

YMMV, of course. I've had issues like this for my whole life. If I need to use a reference for something, I slow way way down unless the reference is convenient.