Coding on Paper
59 points by owickstrom 2 days ago | 19 comments
pjmlp 15 hours ago
I thought it was actually paper coding, as many of us learned to do before coding right away into a keyboard.
replyintrasight 20 minutes ago
In my case paper coding did involve the keyboard. In high school, I took a programming class at the university and they had us do our first two Fortran assignments on IBM punched cards.
replyI am the youngest person I know who programmed on that paper!
TacticalCoder 2 hours ago
And paper debugging!
replyFond memories of printing programs on continuous printer paper (paper with holes on the side, that many dot-matrix printers used) so that I could take my time to read them to figure out where the bugs where.
PyWoody 2 hours ago
I've always dreamed of doing that.
replyWhenever I proofread papers in college, I would always print them out. There's something about being able to physically hold the paper that makes keeping the whole idea in your head easier that just isn't possible on a screen, for me at least.
jolmg 2 hours ago
Some time ago, I bought a transflective LCD module. Pixel density was high, higher than my phone's, which is weird because reflective LCD monitors tend to be sold with low pixel densities. IDK why this tech is so rare in comparison to eink and why eink's being pursued like this. Eink's still better for e.g. price tags and e-readers, but for coding? for a monitor? a transflective LCD would be better.
replyt1234s 4 hours ago
While bored in class in the mid 90's I would literally code pascal on paper.
replyjbuzbee 3 hours ago
My first job out of college in the early 80's was working on diagnostics for an old NASA computer. "What language do I use?" I asked my boss. "We don't have a compiler". OK, I thought, assembly language. "No" said my boss "We don't have an assembler". "OK" I guess I'll write machine language. "What's the development environment?" "We don't have one. There's no editor. There's no network. There's no keyboard or monitor" I had to write my diagnostics in 96 bit hex using pencil and paper and then enter my program into the computer using toggle switches on the front panel. Kids today have no idea :-) And get off my lawn!
replyevgpbfhnr 4 hours ago
I'd definitely love to see more screens like this sold (and getting better & more affordable with time)!
replyThe mira pro color is marked as sold out and I can't even figure how to check non-color version on their site, so this doesn't look like something they sell a lot of though...
aselimov3 2 hours ago
If only I could justify the 2k. I feel like life quality would improve significantly if I had this. Do you use another monitor for calls for work?
replylordleft 2 hours ago
I had no idea Boox made these. I have two of their tablets and one of their e-readers. I can't wait to see e-ink progress as a technology.
replymaxdo 3 hours ago
i seriously thought it is https://github.com/paperclipai/paperclip about this :) it's the complete opposite lol
reply
Thank you so much for misleading me to click your link.
Maybe you haven't heard of it before? E-paper (including e-ink) displays are much less rare than actually coding on pen and paper.
Would you be asking the same question for a post titled "Drawing with Ink", but it linked you to a page about drawing with an e-ink display? Of course not. It's misleading.
If it said "coding with ink", yes, I think I just might.
Try not to be so triggered. I don't think the author actually was trying to mislead. Of what use would that be? To their non-monetized blog? They're just sharing their happy moment with a "look it's like paper!" kind of vibe.
> I imagine most everyone at this point has heard of e-paper and e-ink displays
You'd be surprised. A few years ago, I asked about an eink reader / ebook reader at an electronics store and they didn't know what that was. Think I had to explain it to them as a tablet for reading books, but with a special display.