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

[John Gordon]

In <mailman.9.1517152018.2816.python-list at python.org> Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> writes:

> I'm seeing this annoying practice more and more often. Even for trivial 
> pieces of text, a few lines, people post screenshots instead of copying 
> the code.

In some (perhaps rare) cases, a screenshot can provide useful independent
verification.

Such a screenshot recently helped me diagnose an issue in a stackoverflow
post.  A user was having trouble with some code that opens a file, and he
posted a screenshot of the code and a screenshot of a Windows File Explorer
window containing the desired file.  The File Explorer screenshot clearly
contained the desired file (named input.txt), and he was mystified as to
why the code was claiming the file did not exist.

The displayed filename in File Explorer was input.txt -- meaning that the
real filename was actually input.txt.txt, because File Explorer shows file
extensions as a separate column.

Without this screenshot, we would have had only the user's (incorrect)
assertion that the file existed, and no way to diagnose the true issue.

Granted, this was an environment issue and not a code issue, but I can
imagine situations where the same sort of thing could apply to code.

-- 
John Gordon                   A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs
gordon at panix.com              B is for Basil, assaulted by bears
                                -- Edward Gorey, "The Gashlycrumb Tinies"