10 Apr
2017
10 Apr
'17
3:06 p.m.
On 9 Apr 2017, at 17:57, Toby Thain <toby(a)telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
Looks like something added in printing and not in the source. Mercifully, B doesn't
use line numbers.
I think people perhaps forget how important line numbers were in hardcopy: in a world
where you did a lot of work on a program by printing it out, then taking the printout to
your desk, reading it and writing notes and new code on it (which was how almost everyone
worked since terminals were a scarce resource), the line numbers on the printout where how
you communicated the changes you wanted to make to yourself later on: if you'd
changed line 53 on the printout you told the editor to go to line 53 and changed it. If
you didn't have line numbers on the printout then it was almost useless.