I've just walked out of a written exam on Functional Programming in Haskell. Given my preference for keyboard and text editor over pen and paper I ran into more than a few issues.

Ampersands and pens don't mix.

I think nine out of every ten lines in my answer booklet contained crossings out. Paper and code don't mix. Consider


mutilate :: [(A,B)]-> [C]
mutilate x:xs = let (a,b) = frobnicate x
in mung a : mung b : mutilate xs


the above would probably have started out as


mutilate something = foo : bar : mutilate something


At which point there are a number of insertions and line changes, many of which require the re-writing of the entire function. Of course one could write in pencil and make copious use of a rubber (or eraser if you speak a dialect of English other then British). There are two drawbacks to using a pencil: the possibility of wearing through the paper, and the exam rubric insists we use only blue or black ink.

Of course we could all be given a seat in the labs, but then half of us would be complaining about not having our favorite plugin for our favorite editor, and others* complaining about not having notepad, and someone would lose half their answers because eclipse** ate it.

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* Yes, there are CS students prefer Windows + notepad to anything else. Why they haven't been re-educated with the LART** yet I don't know
** Rapid Prototyping, contrary to popular belief, is not the use of development environments other than Eclipse. Honest.
*** (l)user (a)ttitude (r)eadjustment (t)ool. Also used for excessive percussive maintenance...