Code Calligraphy

[John Woods]

> >Typing ability probably has a lot to do with [programming on paper], too.
> Could be; I never write actual code on paper, and I type MUCH faster
> than I write (I type reasonably quickly and write excruciatingly
> slowly)....
> However, I don't think that writing code on paper gains you much
> if anything.  The key to writing good code is to have a clear
> understanding of the algorithm(s) involved.
> 
Well, I (having already admitted to using paper) type extremely quickly, and
write no faster than most people.  The advantage I find in using paper,
though, is that I can draw pictures, and make marginal notes, on the same
page as my growing code evolves.  And, in preliminary sketches of code, at
least, I find that the flexibility of a 2D sheet of paper is easier to work 
with than the "1.5D" of a text-editor screen (even with a "REAL MAN'S" editor
like EMACS :-).

However, when I am slogging though code that is already written, and it's more
than a page or two long, I always use a text editor (though I like to have
hard copy also:  think of it as very static multi-windows...).

Sometimes I stick box-and-pointer diagrams into typed in code for explanation.
If I tried composing code with comments like that, I think I'd forget the
algorithm I was explaining long before I finished the doodle...

Someday there will be a C compiler which accepts MacPaint input files.
I hope.

--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc at MIT-XX.ARPA