Best way to handle programming electronic references and documentation

Question

So I print out my documents, manuals, references when I use them (ie, I don't start a project by printing everything out, but when I'm trying to understand how to program a peripheral I usually print out the relevant sections).

Yes, I have dual monitors (although I'd certainly like more pixels and am excited by the new $200 22" 1920x1080 monitors... yum!).

But I still print things out. Maybe I'm old school, but I don't like having to switch between my IDE and the documentation (which I have to do even with lots of monitor space), I don't like reading for great lengths of time on a monitor, and I do like being able to write in margins and take notes. Only one of these can be solved with more monitors, although I expect there's probably software that will let me write notes in my PDFs, so the last issue can only be solved with perhaps an e-ink display of some sort. My experience with the kindle shows a bound sheaf of paper is still faster and easier to read - what else is out there?

Manufacturers aren't printing and giving out books with this material for free anymore, "The manual is on our website, sir, please look there." "But I want a printed version!" "Please go to our website for all related information on product X."

Worse, many of the PDFs have minimal or no restrictions encoded in the PDF file, but Kinkos and such won't print and bind them without a release from the copyright holder, which is a pain to get.

So over the years I've developed a reasonably useful binding system for myself, which I'll detail in an answer below, but it has its drawbacks.

• What do you do?
• Have you adapted to the 'paperless office' and somehow manage to do it all on the screen?
• How do you manage your printed documents through the lifecycle of the project (specification, design, development, release, maintenance)? Specifically, at what point do you discard them, and have you ever printed something out more than once because you couldn't find it?

Answer 1

For reading something cover to cover, I like hard copy. I often read books on the train, and ebooks just don't cut it for me.

However, for reference material (which is the vast bulk of what I read, to be honest) I'm more than happy with electronic format. This means I don't actually print much out (except when writing - proof-reading is a lot easier with hard copy).

Switching between the IDE and docs doesn't bother me at all, to be honest - I'm often flicking between docs, mail, other web sites etc anyway.

Answer 2

I print out the documents double sided, staple the left edge in three places, and cover the staples and edge with a single strip of tape, which prevents the "binding" from expanding through use, paper cuts, etc (try it without the tape on several documents and you'll see what I mean).

My problem is that this doesn't scale.

I have two different staplers that can go between 20 and 150 pages, but at about 75 pages the radius of the paper thickness absorbs the left margin and the middle of the document starts to disappearing into the binding.

For the most part I print out smaller sections, but there are occasions where it makes sense to have one large printed document.

I don't like three ring binders for this - clunky, takes up more space, not easy to turn pages and sections, pages rip out when used frequently.

I'm willing to buy a binding machine if there's a better (not too expensive) solution for the larger 'books'.

Answer 3

When I'm writing code and need a language or library reference, I prefer to use online documentation because it's searchable and cut-n-paste-able. And since my fingers are already on the keyboard, Google, SO, and Usenet are just a few keystrokes away.

On the other hand, when I'm analyzing code (or data dumps), I want to see as much of it at a time as possible, mark it up with highlighters, and rearrange it with relevant sections side by side. Back in the dark ages I wrote a Word macro that opens a source file, formats it into 2 columns on a landscape page, numbers the lines, sets the margins, and adds a footer with the filename, date, page number, and copyright/confidential notice; I still use it today and sometimes spread printouts over a conference table to get, literally, the big picture.

Bonus: This works *great* for collaboration and code reviews.