Where has the practice of sending screen shots as source code come from?

[eryk sun]

On Sun, Jan 28, 2018 at 4:36 PM, Steven D'Aprano
<steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sun, 28 Jan 2018 15:54:31 +0000, Tim Golden wrote:
>
>> At least for Windows users, grabbing a partial screenshot (eg of text)
>> has been very easy since Windows 7 when the "Snipping Tool" was added to
>> the builtins.
>
> Thanks, I didn't know that.

It's a common feature in desktop environments. In Ubuntu Linux I can
hit Shift+PrintScreen to select and save part of the screen as a PNG
file, or copy it to the clipboard.

But it's no excuse for sending screen shots of source code.
Fortunately on Stack Overflow I usually see this for command prompt
screenshots of errors, not source code.

>> Certainly easier for the average user than trying to do a
>> slightly tricky rectangle selection within the Windows console.
>
> But I'm not seeing that it could possibly be easier than selecting text
> and hitting copy and paste. Not even in the Windows console, which I
> admit is a bit clunky, let alone a modern IDE. More *familiar*, maybe,
> but easier?

The new console in Windows 10 defaults to line-wrapping selection
instead of rectangle selection. Holding the ALT key temporarily
toggles the selection mode.