Archive pointer to 2013 FRIAM thread on literate programming: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/Literate-CoffeeScript-td7581862.html
Owen gave a nice WedTech talk sometime around then, too. -Stephen On Sun, Feb 21, 2021 at 8:24 PM Russell Standish <li...@hpcoders.com.au> wrote: > On Wed, Jan 27, 2021 at 11:45:46AM -0700, Prof David West wrote: > > > > But — a program has two audiences: the machine (no communication here) > and > > other programmers (tons of miscommunication here). This is what the > reference > > from Eric Smith talks about. There is an entire, usually ignored, > paradigm in > > computer science called "literate programming" — the most prominent > advocate, > > Donald Knuth. > > > > If one were skilled at literate programming, one would be communicating > to > > another programmer (or herself at a later point in time) all the > knowledge and > > meaning necessary for the latter to understand, modify, enhance, or > correct the > > program as needs be. If possible this would be a communication skill > worth > > developing — might lead to more precise and accurate communication > outside the > > world of the computer. > > Literate programming is alive and well in modern software engineering > - it just isn't called that. Knuth's tools which involved a special > input language, a tool for converting that to compileable Pascal and > Latex for producing humane readable printouts of the code were > fantastic for the 1980s, but are rather dated for current software > development requirements. > > In C++, one uses a tool called Doxygen, which parses standard C++ > code, and produces HTML, Latex and other possibilities. The "dot" > network graphics tool is used to produce interactive UML diagrams of > the class structures, and source code is annotate with hyperlinks > allowing you to click on (say) a variable name, to find out what type > it is, where it is defined and so on. Plus, there is a huge amount of > doxygen markup features available, allowing things like embedded LaTeX > equations, or adding in crafted HTML links and so on. In short it does > everything Knuth's web tool did, and more, without the need to write > in an idiosyncratic source language. > > When I come across a piece of unfamiliar code, the _first_ thing I do > is run doxygen on it, and then start reading the code using a web > browser. People are sometimes amazed at how quickly I find my way > around a new code base - when that happens, I let them in on my > superpower, ie doxygen. > > Doxygen handles a number of programming environments, Java, C#, > Fortran even, though not Python nor Javascript alas. Other > environments have similar tools, of greater or lesser power: eg Java > has Javadoc (which is broadly compatible with Doxygen, in fact). > > Knuth should be commended for being 30 years ahead of his time with > literate programming, and should be glad the industry does finally > "get it", even if his contribution is largely forgotten, and not > acknowledged by the hordes of software engineers currently practising. > > > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders hpco...@hpcoders.com.au > http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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