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

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 21:32:11 -0800, Rustom Mody wrote:

> On Sunday, January 28, 2018 at 8:37:11 PM UTC+5:30, Steven D'Aprano
> wrote:
>> 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.
>> 
>> Where has this meme come from? It seems to be one which inconveniences
>> *everyone* involved:
> 
> Have you heard of the “Dutch Reach¨?
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/the-dutch-reach-how-opening-car-
door-like-the-dutch-could-save-lives-cycling/

Ah, yes, the Dutch Reach. That would be like the French Pox (which isn't 
French), the Spanish Flu (that didn't start in Spain), the Jerusalem 
artichoke (which is neither an artichoke nor from Jerusalem), and the 
turkey (the bird, which has nothing to do with Turkey, the country).

This technique is neither taught nor commonly used used by the Dutch: 
apparently some Americans decided that because the Netherlands has a lot 
of cyclists, they'll say its Dutch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dooring

So let me see if I understand the logic... 

Rather than teach people to *explicitly* check their mirror to make sure 
it is safe before opening the car door, teach them a difficult, awkward 
maneuver which they're guaranteed to stop using the second the driving 
test is over, that merely points their head more-or-less vaguely in the 
right direction to *maybe* notice on-coming cyclists *if and only if* 
they're actually paying attention.

I can see this falls under the problem solving technique, "We must do 
something, this is something, therefore we must do it!"

The sorts of people who can't remember to check their mirror before 
opening the car door aren't the sort who will remember to use this 
awkward technique. And for those who can remember to do so, it is simpler 
and more effective to explicitly check your mirror (as the Dutch actually 
do).


> Presumably it goes beyond the 'inconvenience' of images-instead-of-text
> to the saving-of-lives…

I have no idea what connection you think is between this and emailing 
pictures of source code in place of source code.


-- 
Steve