pencil and paper

An archaic information storage and transmission device that

works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp.

More recent developments in paper-based technology include

improved "write-once" update devices which use tiny rolling

heads similar to mouse balls to deposit coloured pigment. All

these devices require an operator skilled at so-called

"handwriting" technique. These technologies are ubiquitous

outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most

hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of

keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further.

Perhaps for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper

technology and often resist using it in any but the most

trivial contexts.

[Jargon File]

(1994-12-06)