I like to print out software requirements so I can easily mark them up, sketch UIs, etc.
Do you print out requirements and design materials ahead of time or just view them digitally?
What features make for the ideal "programmer's" printer?
We frequently print such stuff... usually via FinePrint (2-pages-to-a-page) with an 'Obsolete if printed' marker, onto our standard office printer.
A B&W Laser is enough for me, I print out most of requirements documents, class diagrams and E-R Diagrams...
I often print out analysis documents to give them the once over after I think I've finished. I almost always notice something else after reading from a printed copy.
I like printing them so I can draw and write all over them.
I use b&w laser at a minimum.
When representing a lot of information on a diagram though, color is helpful to have. I've been looking to move to a color laser printer. What is important to look out for is that you find a printer that prints all four toner colors through one pass in the drum. Most of the cheaper laser printers send the sheet of paper through up to 5 times, once for each color plus black. This uses up the drum in your printer much faster.
For any printer you look at, be sure to calculate a cost per page including toner and the drum. If you can find a printer model a few years old for which third party toners exist, look at that carefully. I know that Brother and Okidata printers are great for business/spec type printing and have the lowest toner costs on the market. My next printer will be one of them.
Beyond that, try to find a printer that: - is network capable (wireless is a nice to have) - duplexer is a nice to have. I like to use the backs of the sheets to take notes on the printed sheet next to it. - has multi function capabilities. I live by my fax to email scanner. I email it into my case manager and title it appropriately and file away the paper. if I need it again, I can print off the PDF again.
Yes, Network B&W Laser - mainly so I can have a lot of things readily available which won't all fit on my monitor(s), especially multi-page diagrams generated with graphviz, and anything which needs annotation.
I've done quite a few large spec documents, and had occasion once to set up a workflow to support a team of 5 analysts collaborating on a very large spec document for an insurance underwriting system. A printer should have the following feature set:
Duplex printing - so you can bind a document of more than 50 pages or so into a booklet. This is a big win on larger documents.
A3 printing - so you can print out larger diagrams such as database models.
PostScript - PCL still has limitations that bite from time to time. Also, anything but Windows works much better with a Postscript printer.
Network connection if you want to connect more than one computer to it.
Colour is optional, a nice-to-have.
One thing to note is that you can get high spec laser printers off ebay for peanuts. I have a HP 9000DTN, which is a large 50ppm A3 printer with a duplexing unit. It's the type that has options for collators, staplers, paper feeders with a 2000 sheet capacity and a scanner to use it as a photocopier. It's a bit too big and clunky, but it cost me £400 off ebay. You might want go get something smaller (I didn't realise how big it was until it arrived), although something like this with the photocopier bits might be a win. I've also seen HP 4xxx printers with duplex units and low usage (12,000 sheets) go for about £100.
Requirements? sometimes -- but usually when we meet with other departments for discussions and then only the discussion points. Code? never the entire work; only snippets; but again, only for review and discussion (more often, just project it). Design documents? rarely.
Now what I DO like to do is project my diagrams and scribblings onto the whiteboard -- this allows me (team too) to use our dry erase markers to mark up what the projector shows -- If we like the results, I'll update my docs and repeat the process ...
I used to back in the dot matrix/fan fold paper days. With modern page printers it's too easy to get the pages all jumbled up. That and we have larger displays now that let you see more code at a time anyways. Throw in a tablet PC to make notes on and there's no paper left on my desk.
Sometimes. I use two screens at work, so most of the time I can look at a spec and something else as well.
If I do print, then its two pages per A4, double sided, to waste less paper.