use Perl

• paper vs. keyboard (Score:1)

  by kjones4 (3231)

  I know what you mean. At work it took me quite a long time to become comfortable taking notes about phone calls on my computer rather than a piece of paper. At least on my part, it was completely irrational and ineffiecient to use paper, especially since I'm a fairly quick typist and my handwriting sucks. I finally wrote a script called "work" that would create a file, put it in my work_log directory, and fire up vim. I still instinctively reach for paper to take notes.
• Paper, or even better a big whiteboard (Score:1)

  by Alias (5735)

  I think at some point in a difficult problem it becomes an issue of capacity. You want maximum neurons on the problem, and as few context switches as you can.
  
  We've been using crayons since we were 3 in most cases, and just drawing requires very little mental effort.
  
  Using a computer requires thought to drive the interface, and when what you really want is an analog and unstructured extention to your brain, pen based stuff is hard to beat.
  
  And a whiteboard is like paper, but with an undo :)
• It's just better... (Score:1)

  by Adrian (66)

  There's just something really comforting about writing on a sheet of paper.

  It's a better technology!

  High resolution, portable, disposable, high contrast, etc. Index cards rock :-)
• Re: (Score:1)

  by Aristotle (5147)

  It’s the lack of structure in general. You can scribble anything (whether it’s even a letter or not) onto any place of the paper, you can fold the paper itself, etc. Doing anything on a computer requires and forces structure to your activity, which is not a good match when you’re trying to revv your brain and free-associate.