alt.hn

5/17/2026 at 1:29:16 PM

Coding on Paper

 https://wickstrom.tech/2026-05-16-coding-on-paper.html

by owickstrom

5/19/2026 at 1:01:26 AM

It's not the paper (and pen), it's some "paper screen" marketing.

Thank you so much for misleading me to click your link.

by zx8080

5/19/2026 at 2:24:22 AM

> it's some "paper screen" marketing.

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.

by jolmg

5/19/2026 at 3:51:29 AM

What difference does it make if they heard of it, or how rare displays are vs pen/paper coding? I imagine most everyone at this point has heard of e-paper and e-ink displays, but the author clearly dropped the "e" to make it sound more intriguing.

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.

by spiralcoaster

5/19/2026 at 3:59:23 AM

> Would you be asking the same question for a post titled "Drawing with Ink",

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.

by jolmg

5/21/2026 at 11:21:29 AM

> “Try not to be so triggered.”

Not normally do I like telling others how to feel or behave, and as I was reacting to this comment I recalled the written-by-ai fireworks I see going off in comments all over hn. I will try not to react here either. Haha

by xtiansimon

5/19/2026 at 4:28:10 PM

"on paper" means with actual paper. Using the term to refer to an electronic display is incorrect usage, regardless of whether the intent was to deceive or not.

by bigstrat2003

5/19/2026 at 3:06:05 AM

Really? Coding with pen and paper is very normal from my perspective. How else to you brainstorm with a colleague?

by throwaway27448

5/19/2026 at 3:37:16 AM

Locally, by both sitting on the same computer. Remotely, you can use tmux and attach to the same session, but more generally you submit a PR/MR and have discussions linked to particular lines. You can also have code in discussions on issues. Whiteboards can be used, but typically for diagrams, lists, etc., not code. Coding while on the projector during a meeting is another option.

by jolmg

5/18/2026 at 1:37:24 PM

I thought it was actually paper coding, as many of us learned to do before coding right away into a keyboard.

by pjmlp

5/19/2026 at 2:34:59 AM

And paper debugging!

Fond 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.

by TacticalCoder

5/19/2026 at 2:51:55 AM

I've always dreamed of doing that.

Whenever 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.

by PyWoody

5/19/2026 at 4:10:13 AM

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.

I am the youngest person I know who programmed on that paper!

by intrasight

5/19/2026 at 12:56:35 AM

I'd definitely love to see more screens like this sold (and getting better & more affordable with time)!

The 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...

by evgpbfhnr

5/19/2026 at 1:00:22 AM

While bored in class in the mid 90's I would literally code pascal on paper.

by t1234s

5/19/2026 at 2:01:43 AM

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!

by jbuzbee

5/19/2026 at 1:27:01 AM

Similarly, I'd write code in BASIC in notebooks before I had a computer. Later on I remember writing up assembly code in my high school library on loose leaf sheets when I had a neat idea and my friends were busy studying. Nothing like solving a problem the old fashioned way.

by allenu

5/19/2026 at 3:30:41 AM

History class in high school, because I couldn't use my TI-83 without suspicion.

by nomel

5/19/2026 at 3:19:00 AM

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?

by aselimov3

5/19/2026 at 7:23:55 AM

Your life quality wouldn't improve. It's just a reason to buy new tech that looks cool that so many of us use here.

by ktallett

5/19/2026 at 12:44:29 PM

It feels like with this monitor the only thing you can really do is a terminal. Would really help with focusing I think. Less colors/distractions. Although I’m sure hn would work fine on it haha

by aselimov3

5/19/2026 at 8:07:56 PM

An option might be uninstalling your graphical environment and just using the linux console at e.g. Ctrl-Alt-F2. You could disable colors by setting TERM=xterm-mono.

by jolmg

5/19/2026 at 8:51:03 PM

Man that’s a hard one because personal browsing for things like banking would require a GUI. But I could use a separate machine for that. This is a pretty decent experiment to run.

by aselimov3

5/19/2026 at 3:14:05 AM

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.

by lordleft

5/19/2026 at 6:17:34 AM

My first university course was a C programming course. The exam was a programming task to be carried over on paper.

by davidelettieri

5/19/2026 at 6:44:41 PM

This is true dedication though!

by rfrancocantero