What are the advantages of printing code? Of course it kills many trees, but I know that in many old-school environments (especially professors) some have asked for code printouts. Is there really any advantage to doing this except destroying the environment, such as facilitating code review?
+7
A:
It's nice to be able to make notes on the code with an old-fashioned pen. Text-editors are fine but sometimes its nice to be able to draw a circle around some code or put an arrow, and so on.
Mark Byers
2010-10-28 08:30:29
A:
Well look at it this way, Some people dislike reading large amounts of text from a computer screen, or they won't be near a computer when its time to "review" your code. Besides these days paper is recycled so not really killing trees as much.
TAkinremi
2010-10-28 08:33:38
+1
A:
Apart from the school environment, the code printed on paper can be signed by an attorney in good, old plain way - with a stamp and a signature. Then you can present it even to a "computer-illiterate" judge to prove that the code was yours, and he will accept it more willingly than some timestamps on some files.
Of course, there are some more effective methods for proving the ownership of the code, but a lot of people still believe that printed words with a signature are much harder to counterfeit than some ephemeral words on the screen.
These more effective methods (if we are still talking about paper) may include printing only some digital signature of the whole archive (like a tar file or subversion repository), but you have to ensure that you have the archive available, and that the paper contains enough explanations that will be understood by said "computer-illiterate" humans.
Arsen7
2010-10-28 08:58:03
Interestingly, and valid enough for admission in a court of law in the UK (or so I've been reliably advised), is printing out source code (or any other text/writing), sealing it in an envelope, marking all the joins (or placing a seal on them), and sending it to yourself via recorded mail, but not opening it on arrival. The Royal Mail franking stamp (and time-stamped 'paper trail') is admissible as a legal 'time-stamp' in UK courts for the support of copyright/IP disputes. (Disclaimer: IANAL)
James Burgess
2010-10-28 09:20:46
A:
Looking at a printout helps to focus the mind. Several interested people can pore over the code in question and make comments in a style that is not possible with, say, a laptop carried into a quiet room. Paper can be grabbed and marked upon, it can be scrunched up and reopened and overall provides a more human interaction than pressing F3 or CTRL+SHIFT+F.
I wouldn't print out a whole application (unless it was very small), but providing a paper copy of salient changes along with test output can help with code reviews.
Gary Rowe
2010-10-28 09:11:40