Is paper indispensable in a programmer's everyday work?
- by rwong
As a programmer who work in a company whose vision is to make paperless office possible, is there any way I can work effectively while using less paper?
I can list at least several kinds of papers I use quite often:
Paper notebook, on which I do most of the pre-coding design work and ideas
Books
Temporary printouts of source code, though not so often (in color, with a 6 point font at 600 DPI)
Sticky note, to remind myself of things that should be taken care of within a few days
On the other hand, I also use a wiki and an office text editor. Once a while I would use a diagramming software to make a few flowcharts.
Deeper questions:
Is there a relationship between paper use and productivity?
How can programmers help save the trees?
Is paperless software development fundamentally different from paperless office?
Related questions:
Do you ever write code with pen and paper, and should we do it more often?
What physical tools do you find useful to work as a programmer?
What things are essential on a programmer's desk?
Stuff every programmer needs while working
Additional info, if it helps:
Everyone has dual monitors.
We have decent project management and issue tracking software (both web-based).
Please be constructive. In particular, please give your answer to your peer programmers who wish to be flexible and are willing to change working style in order to become more productive as well as meeting certain their own personal values.
Edited: I removed the company's view because it appears to be too flamebait. If you need to see my original words, go to the edit history.
Deleted: Doxygen and whiteboard. Reason: disregarding my personal experience with these great tools, we never had to print out anything as a consequence of using/not using them. To see my original words, go to the edit history.
