to print out a programming code of major importance? Assuming you had a good reason for printing it out?

That is -
1. You have a computer program, written in computer programming language, for a major... thing. Like... Oh, I don't know... maybe... Say, the computer code that tells the computer running the temperature controls on a hydroponic farm how to turn the temp up and down in relation to external and internal... Well, you get it. (No, I'm not writing about hydroponic farming.)

2. You decide, for a currently-to-be-unspecified reason, to print out this entire code and give it to someone else. (No, not gift-wrapped. Factor in only the paper it's printed on.)

3. How many pages is realistic? A hundred or so? Several hundred? A couple thousand? A 12-digit number? Two, because your printer broke? (Wait, no - ignore that last one.)

Thank you!

~Toc

Why is it being printed out, rather than put on a floppy? (I'd say on a key drive or CD, but those only became commonly available relatively recently. Well, the CD might be a possibility even 10 years ago, depending.)

Printing it out would mean someone would have to retype the darn thing!

No, no, trust me <g> ... you want it on paper.

Hmm... this could be hard, or it could be easy. If it's a function that ONLY regulates the temperature, getting all of the data from other sources, it could be 1 page. If those other functions are being printed, well, you may need several reams of paper. It also depends on the programming language used. Something like this, I'm guessing possibly COBOL, which is a bloated language in itself. A function in COBOL, even one this simple, can take 2-3 pages. The pages, in this case, would be printed in landscape (length-wise instead of width, like everyone is used to).

Back in the day....

The defacto rule of measurement for the number of printed lines for a 8.5x11 piece of paper was 65, I think. Karen is right - it depends on what language the program is in, is it just a function, or the whole program, etc... Personally, I'd doubt COBOL would be used to control a temperature [i]thingy[/], but regardless, a function could take up as few as 3 lines and as much as several pages. There are also tools to print more than one "page" per physical page - or as Karen suggested, rotated.

Plus - it would take a long time to do the printing.

The current project I'm working on (a multi-sensored, weather related project) has around 400,000 to 450,000 lines of code (C and C++).

After all this long-winded-ness; make it as big as you want for the story. The range is so great, just about anything will work.

(Still wondering why you would want to print it out in the first place...)

???