I love graph paper.
I like computers and make a living off programming them. But they infuriate me. They are cantankerous machines that for all their uses have so many faults. Its a love hate relationship.
But graph paper is, well, perfect.
Thats not to say that other papers aren't great too. I am fond of tracing paper (or onion skin for you hardcore users). Parchment is cool too. I don't know if velum really counts.
But graph paper is the ultimate surface for thinking on. It doesn't matter if you are creating a diagram or schematic, a mechanical illustration, a chart or table, a website prototype, or even just code snippets. The occasional purely artistic cartoon (I've mastered Bill The Cat) is even at home.
Of course graph paper requires its mate, a fine pencil, which are hard to come by.
I grew up with graph paper. I have pads that are more than 20 years old. I have some of scribblings by my late father. I know there are some that have been lost over the years but I could probably duplicate them from memory, so clear the images are in my head.
I don't plan to ever stop using graph paper, unless they stop making it. But there are times when I wish I had something even remotely close to the utility of graph paper on my computer. But as far as I know, there isn't anything. Sure, there are lots of applications for creating various sorts of graphs and tables and diagrams, even whole standards for such things like UML. And there are word processors, and desktop publishing programs, and everything in between, and programs to make rapid website development, and drawing programs and collaborative 'whiteboarding' tools ad nauseum.
But nothing that comes close to the simple flexibility of graph paper. Never mind such old school technologies like post it notes, 3 x 5 cards, etc.
Is it that it can't be done? Or is it that its such a simple concept that when people set down to do it, they get carried away with feature creep and "overcomplexification"?
When I first started programming on my Amiga way back in the day, I wanted to create such a program. It would have had basic tools for drawing, text, tables (spreadsheets) etc and would organize documents. I didn't want to have to fire up a paint program just to draw a little picture and then try to import that into a wordprocessor just to add some text to it and then import that into a database so I could find what I was looking for later.
Turns out 20 years later there still isn't anything quite like what I envisioned then. Unless I've missed it.
Now, where's my graph paper..
