
Ask HN: Programming on paper (any benefits?) - kamuffel
For the programming exams we have at our university we have to write code on paper (like full code, not pseudo).<p>I feel that writing code on paper really limits my ability to express my programming knowledge, in comparison to writing code on the computer.<p>However, I cannot think of a real benefit of doing so. I mean most programmers (if I may generalize) have bad handwriting. Which is a loss-loss situation for both the examinees and professors (who have to read the exams).<p>Are there any benefits for writing code on paper?
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FroshKiller
Writing code without an IDE forces you to question your assumptions and
acknowledge your ignorance of the language, operating system, runtime, and
application themselves. If I'm creating a new data structure and find myself
unsure whether the type for one of its members is initialized to a certain
value implicitly, that's an opportunity for me to learn something when I
transcribe the code later.

Handwriting in particular is useful to me professionally because it forces me
to slow down and consider each line. I find that I wind up with better
implementations when I write an initial version in longhand, if only because I
frequently circle blocks and ask clarifying questions about my own work.

I doubt this approach is generally useful to every programmer. I hesitate to
recommend it. But yes, there are benefits to me at least.

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LandR
>> I feel that writing code on paper really limits my ability to express my
programming knowledge, in comparison to writing code on the computer.

If I gave you something like an emacs settup with no intellisense or
autocomplete for the language you use, would you struggle? Or is just the
writing it on paper that's the issue?

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kamuffel
It is writing it on paper which is the issue. I would struggle a lot less when
writing it on the computer (without autocomplete or anything related).

How do I know? because when I make my practical (school) assignments (which I
do in Sublime Text without autocomplete) I complete the assignments within no-
time. This is, somehow, not the case when doing it on paper.

