Ask HN: What are you using to print source code these days?

by W-Stool on 9/3/2023, 1:34:12 AM with 7 comments
I was an old school guy who always printed his reams of source code out on a 132 character dot matrix printer - green bar paper, everything. These days this is just not possible. What is the current thinking of printing source code if this is important to you?

  • by dossy on 9/3/2023, 1:45:51 AM

    > These days this is just not possible.

    Why not?

    I still format my code to an 80 column width.

    I can still use `pr` to paginate my source for printing, and use `enscript` to produce a PostScript document of it, then `ps2pdf` to convert that to PDF, then I can spool that PDF to any printer.

    And, on my home network, I have a HP LaserJet 2300dn and I can actually just shove the plain text output from `pr` straight to the JetDirect port on 9100/tcp.

    What exactly is the obstacle that's preventing you from printing out your source code?

  • by simonblack on 9/4/2023, 12:28:46 AM

    Very rarely these days do I print source-code.

    But on the odd occasions that I do, I print the code with a monospaced font directly to .PDF.

    I then transfer that .PDF to a large-format Kindle (like the Scribe).

    When I don't need that anymore I delete it from the Kindle, but retain a copy of the .PDF for future use if necessary.

  • by GianFabien on 9/3/2023, 6:09:50 AM

    I rarely print out source code. Only when I want to carefully study some tricky code written by others. I use LibreOffice Writer, landscape with suitable sized font. Sometimes I leave space to the side for my scribbling, notes, lines, etc. Print on a laser printer.

  • by pncnmnp on 9/3/2023, 1:48:14 AM

    Maybe tangential, but what kind of source code did you all print out? Anything memorable? Also, what were the reasons for printing them out?

  • by ftxbro on 9/3/2023, 2:03:50 AM

    sometimes you can print academic papers that have pseudocode in them it's like source code pseudocode is basically python anyway