3 ms·

My last printer was from 2 decades ago and was only used to print documents. I kind of miss reading source code written by others on dot-matrix long sheets, yo

My last printer was from 2 decades ago and was only used to print documents. I kind of miss reading source code written by others on dot-matrix long sheets, you can reason around existing code in a different way than navigating through a text editor or IDE. Still not indispensable, though.

rudasn 6y ago
Haha I thought I was the only one. When I started being interested in coding, I remember printing the code of some mIRC scripts, and later on printing, html/css files. Everything I would learn was because it was in the source of some other program,and finding something I never seen before was a thrill. Fun times!
usr1106 6y ago
Yes, being able to scribble on a source code listing has its advantages in the case of truly obfuscated code. I have done it once in the last 15 years or so, only 2 years ago. Imagine the faces in the office when I worked with that source code listing in front of me :)
zmix 6y ago
Absolutely! No better way to consume other's code than going through it on a printout! This was the very reason I looked out for a modern dot-matrix printer, last year, only to find, that they have gotten pretty expensive (at least when compared to the InkJets and Lasers and in color, you also want more than 80 columns, etc.). Also, what I did not find was a printer utility, that would print as many pages as still readable onto the paper, with a special emphasis on source code (hilite, etc.) I did not purchase, however, since it is not so often, that I have to go through somebody else's full source-code.
- greggman3 6y ago
  no thanks. I'll take one click to find a reference over paper any day.
  - pantulis 6y ago
    It's not about finding references, it's about the general structure of the code and annotations on the printout. Granted, I guess this is a preference of people who cut their teeth in another era of 80x25 displays before modern editors so to each their own.
    - zmix 6y ago
      > it's about the general structure of the code and annotations on the printout. This! It's like "wading" through the code, being able to jump forth and back and setting remarks.
- abecedarius 6y ago
  Re: utility, how about enscript? E.g. enscript -E -2rj *.c
  - zmix 6y ago
    Cool, thanks!
znpy 6y ago
I used to print some very long shell scripts at my previous employer when I was newly hired. I sat there most of a morning with a rubber, a mechanical pencil and a highlighter and worked my way through the code. It felt very good to have made sense of the whole thing to a reasonable level of detail. I highlighted the key tokens, variables and function names and took notes on the side of the pages (sometimes in the back too). It felt very very good. Some of my colleagues where true masters of shellscript, some scripts were remarkable for what they achieved, along with both error checking and error recovery. I've learnt a lot that morning just by looking up commands and syntax I didn't know at the time.
teddyh 6y ago
“Where’s your chain printer?” — Sid (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20001002 http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20001002)

rudasn 6y ago

Haha I thought I was the only one. When I started being interested in coding, I remember printing the code of some mIRC scripts, and later on printing, html/css files. Everything I would learn was because it was in the source of some other program,and finding something I never seen before was a thrill. Fun times!

usr1106 6y ago

Yes, being able to scribble on a source code listing has its advantages in the case of truly obfuscated code. I have done it once in the last 15 years or so, only 2 years ago. Imagine the faces in the office when I worked with that source code listing in front of me :)

zmix 6y ago

Absolutely! No better way to consume other's code than going through it on a printout! This was the very reason I looked out for a modern dot-matrix printer, last year, only to find, that they have gotten pretty expensive (at least when compared to the InkJets and Lasers and in color, you also want more than 80 columns, etc.). Also, what I did not find was a printer utility, that would print as many pages as still readable onto the paper, with a special emphasis on source code (hilite, etc.) I did not purchase, however, since it is not so often, that I have to go through somebody else's full source-code.

greggman3 6y ago
no thanks. I'll take one click to find a reference over paper any day.
- pantulis 6y ago
  It's not about finding references, it's about the general structure of the code and annotations on the printout. Granted, I guess this is a preference of people who cut their teeth in another era of 80x25 displays before modern editors so to each their own.
  - zmix 6y ago
    > it's about the general structure of the code and annotations on the printout. This! It's like "wading" through the code, being able to jump forth and back and setting remarks.
abecedarius 6y ago
Re: utility, how about enscript? E.g. enscript -E -2rj *.c
- zmix 6y ago
  Cool, thanks!

znpy 6y ago

I used to print some very long shell scripts at my previous employer when I was newly hired. I sat there most of a morning with a rubber, a mechanical pencil and a highlighter and worked my way through the code. It felt very good to have made sense of the whole thing to a reasonable level of detail. I highlighted the key tokens, variables and function names and took notes on the side of the pages (sometimes in the back too). It felt very very good. Some of my colleagues where true masters of shellscript, some scripts were remarkable for what they achieved, along with both error checking and error recovery. I've learnt a lot that morning just by looking up commands and syntax I didn't know at the time.

teddyh 6y ago

“Where’s your chain printer?” — Sid (http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20001002 http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20001002)