Joe Marshall  <jrm@content-integrity.com> wrote:
+---------------
| The most productive programmers I know do not use paper.
+---------------

My experience is *exactly* the opposite!! Programming on paper allows
one to cleanly separate "programming" from "coding", and if one has the
discipline to *finish* programming before *starting* coding, one finds
that far fewer stupid mistakes are being made, and that one's productivity
is *much* higher.

Plus, (even though I work at a company that produces one of the highest-
resolution displays in the business) I have yet to see a display or set
of displays that comes *close* to the "resolution" of a desktop and/or
wall full of paper, at least in the ability to present a huge context
at one glance.

Note: I'm not saying it's *impossible* to separate programming from
coding without using pen & paper, only that it's very, very hard
(nearly impossible) to *learn* that discipline of separation while
interacting online.  Once you start down the path of online "tweaking"
(with its attendant rushes of instant gratification), it's almost
impossible to back out again to a higher view of algorithms & structure...


-Rob

-----
Rob Warnock, 31-2-510		rpw3@sgi.com
Network Engineering		http://reality.sgi.com/rpw3/
Silicon Graphics, Inc.		Phone: 650-933-1673
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.		PP-ASEL-IA
Mountain View, CA  94043