4 ms·

Why do you find print better than an electronic version of the same thing? Having never tried it, I would assume your method is worse because it lacks features

Why do you find print better than an electronic version of the same thing? Having never tried it, I would assume your method is worse because it lacks features like easy editing and search.

dragontamer 6y ago
> Why do you find print better than an electronic version of the same thing? Because it converts desk-space into "screen space", so to speak. > easy editing A lot of things don't really change when you're coding. For example, APIs, or "vocabulary objects" of your code. But if you really need to edit some object that's changed, pull out a pencil and write it into the margins. Or print out the new page, and stick it into your book. No need to reprint everything. 2-hole punch + prong binder is easy to disassemble and reassemble. Comb-binder is a bit harder, but its a superior binding if you care about that. 3-hole punch is pretty much designed for easy editing: very easy to add and/or remove pages. But in all honesty, 3-hole punch is a terrible reading experience so I still prefer 2-hole punch and/or comb binders (even if they're harder to edit). > search You don't use the paper version to "search". (Though crude methods exist: dog-earing common pages or putting sticky notes / literal physical bookmarks into some pages). If you need to search, search on the computer for the material. Then, open up to the page you need in the physical book. Bam, now you have a reference and can use the screen-space on your monitor for something else. ---------- A dedicated reference page (such as OpenMP Reference Cards: https://www.openmp.org/wp-content/uploads/OpenMP-4.0-C.pdf https://www.openmp.org/wp-content/uploads/OpenMP-4.0-C.pdf) is of course best. Doxygen -> Latex isn't the best at automated layout, but it does get the job done. I mention it mostly because its "low effort" to convert code into a physical paper reference copy. If you really need a reference sheet, you should manually craft a nice reference sheet in MS Word, or HTML5, and print it out. Nothing beats hand-crafted effort, but the low-effort methodologies are still worth knowing.

Why do you find print better than an electronic version of the same thing? Having never tried it, I would assume your method is worse because it lacks features like easy editing and search.

dragontamer 6y ago

> Why do you find print better than an electronic version of the same thing? Because it converts desk-space into "screen space", so to speak. > easy editing A lot of things don't really change when you're coding. For example, APIs, or "vocabulary objects" of your code. But if you really need to edit some object that's changed, pull out a pencil and write it into the margins. Or print out the new page, and stick it into your book. No need to reprint everything. 2-hole punch + prong binder is easy to disassemble and reassemble. Comb-binder is a bit harder, but its a superior binding if you care about that. 3-hole punch is pretty much designed for easy editing: very easy to add and/or remove pages. But in all honesty, 3-hole punch is a terrible reading experience so I still prefer 2-hole punch and/or comb binders (even if they're harder to edit). > search You don't use the paper version to "search". (Though crude methods exist: dog-earing common pages or putting sticky notes / literal physical bookmarks into some pages). If you need to search, search on the computer for the material. Then, open up to the page you need in the physical book. Bam, now you have a reference and can use the screen-space on your monitor for something else. ---------- A dedicated reference page (such as OpenMP Reference Cards: https://www.openmp.org/wp-content/uploads/OpenMP-4.0-C.pdf https://www.openmp.org/wp-content/uploads/OpenMP-4.0-C.pdf) is of course best. Doxygen -> Latex isn't the best at automated layout, but it does get the job done. I mention it mostly because its "low effort" to convert code into a physical paper reference copy. If you really need a reference sheet, you should manually craft a nice reference sheet in MS Word, or HTML5, and print it out. Nothing beats hand-crafted effort, but the low-effort methodologies are still worth knowing.