Web of stories life stories of remarkable people 4,105 views. Orgmodes documentation on literate programming, for more examples of things you can do with orgmode. The final essay is an example of cweb, a system for literate programming in c and related languages. Mar 20, 2000 literate programming was invented around 1983 by the very famous donald knuth, author of the tex typesetting system and the multivolume series the art of computer programming. Extm program, one of his goals was to publish it as a program of which a professor of computer science might be proud, in spite of the fact that it meets real.
Knuth indicated that he chose the name literate programming in part to contrast the name and the idea with structured programming, which was the fashion of the time and which he apparently felt pointed programmers in the completely wrong direction and he was 100% right on this. Knuth 1983 developed the web literate programming software, which provided the means for writing structured documentation within the source code and generating dynamic documentation. Knuth developed the web system as a working literateprogramming language. Web is a combination of a document formatting language. Though rarely mentioned, sloppy coding often costs companies a great deal in terms of time and money. In a literate haskell program, there are two ways to distinguish between code and noncode portions. I used literate programming consequently for all my programs. Together with open image in new window donald knuth developed a new way to document programs.
Jan, 2016 knuth is also a fan of abstracted programming languages like literate programming which he claims without it he wouldnt have been able to create a lot of the exercises in recent taocp volumes so anybody declaring that if youre just a java programmer you wont get any use out of the books are likely incorrect. Pdf in this paper we discuss the characteristics of literate programming and the development of programming. In haskell, a literate program is one with the suffix. Pdf a case for contemporary literate programming researchgate. Back in 1984, donald knuth wrote let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of programs. I think the issue is treating knuths literate programming examples as received wisdom, or the pinnacle of the form, rather than as a pioneering effort by someone very talented, but done without the benefit of a developed culture around the practice. Literate programming is also the name of donknuths book isbn 0937073814 which describes the methodology. Literate programming with and for r ross ihaka december, 15, 2011 1 introduction in a 1984 paper 4, donald knuth introduced the concept of literate program ming. An introduction to the web style of literate programming.
Such an environment reverses the notion of including documentation, in the form of comments, within the code, to one where the code is embedded within a programs description. Literate programming department of computer science. A literate program is a literary entity, written to be read from beginning to end, and taking on the character of a book or essay. But knuth s web and cweb are the only major literate programming tools that i know about that actively typeset the code. The system has been used for small and large programs. In each case, the primary goal has been to write the program.
Beautifully typeset your code so one can curl up in bed to read it like a novel. Order your code for others to read, not for the compiler. Mathematical writingissues of technical writing and the effective presentation of mathematics and computer science. Literate programming, invented in 1981 by the same donald knuth who wrote the art of computer programming and the document language tex, is a technique in which a program is written as a humanoriented document interspersing discussion and code. Mar 01, 1992 this is a collection of material by knuth about the philosophy and practice of literate programming, his idea of programs as literature. One speculation for the reason behind knuths pushing of lp is that according to stanfords intellectual property policy, stanford would have owned all of knuths code, but not his published writing. Many examples are given, including excerpts from the programs for tex and metafont. Haskell is one of the few languages that provides native features to support literate programming. Center for the study of language and literate programming is a methodology that combines a programming. Donald knuth is the inventor of tex and literate programming, professor emeritus at stanford university, winner of the acm turing award, and author of the art of computer programming. The practitioner of literate programming can be re.
It was proposed by donald knuth in 1984 in his article donald knuth. Literate programming, the computer journal, 272, pp 97111, may. Literate programming is a methodology that combines a programming language with a documentation language, thereby making programs more robust, more portable, more easily maintained, and arguably more fun to write than programs that are written only in a highlevel language. The literate programming paradigm, as conceived by knuth, represents a move away from writing computer programs in the manner and order imposed by the computer, and instead enables programmers to develop programs in the order demanded by the logic and flow of their thoughts. For more information on literate programming, the reader is directed to knuths early founding work knuth83 and knuth84. The code segments are arranged not according to execution order or the logical structure of the code. The web system embodies the ideas of literate programming. The main idea is to treat a program as a piece of literature, addressed. In essence, this is the purpose of literate programming lp for short. Next, a literate programming software that the special notation is written for parses the string notations to separate the programming. Whats the best way to do literate programming in python on. Jan 23, 2006 literate programming, invented in 1981 by the same donald knuth who wrote the art of computer programming and the document language tex, is a technique in which a program is written as a humanoriented document interspersing discussion and code. Newest literateprogramming questions stack overflow.
Web does not make other languages obsolete, but rather enhances them. Donald knuth, who is no small name in computing, proposes a new way of doing things in his literate programming. The code segments are arranged not according to execution order or the logical structure of the. When you write a computer program, you have to present the code to the computer in a certain order, or else it doesnt work. By combining the two, we can maximize our ability to. A critique of literate programming as it is currently used. Knuth computer science department, stanford university, stanford, ca 94305, usa the author and his associates have been experimenting for the past several years with a program ming language and documentation system called web. This view sees literate programming as another programming tool or another programming style. Donald knuth created the web system of literate programming when he. When i do the latex export to a pdf, i would like the name of the file the code gets tangled to to be displayed by each code block. Knuths other idea was that the best order to explain the parts of the program in a journal article is not going to be the same as the order that the computer needs to see the code. Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate. For more recent information refer to smith91, which provides a comprehensive bibliography up to 1990. Knuth s premise is that the best programs are meant for people as well as machines.
Literate programming lp, introduced by donald knuth, views a program and its documentation as an integrated whole. Donald knuth introduced literate programming in 1984 as an alternative perspective on the motivation of the programmer. Literate programming is a programming paradigm introduced by donald knuth in which a computer program is given an explanation of its logic in a natural language, such as english, interspersed with snippets of macros and traditional source code, from which compilable source code can be generated the literate programming paradigm, as conceived by knuth. I like noweb, but i have two main problems with it. Write your code anywhere and in any order with as much explanation as you like. This is a modificaiton of and an implementation of knuths literate programming technique.
On the writing side, the main issue is that literate programming tends to tie your writing into the tools that support your literate programming. To create code for compilation from a websource, tangleis used. Tex can then be used to create the typeset document. Knuth photo of all the books, by hector garciamolina, 15 march 2015 photo of all the translations, by hector garciamolina, 15 march 2015 click web links for current news about each book of interest. Some thirty years ago donald knuth, a computer scientist, proposed literate programming as a better way of organizing narrative and code 1984.
Extm program, one of his goals was to publish it as a program of which a professor of computer science might be proud, in spite of the fact that it meets realworld constraints and compromises 2, p. Whats the best way to do literate programming in python. There have been several attempts to adapt literate programming paradigm. A critique of literate programming as it is currently used is presented, and methods for enhancing. Literate programming, a concept central to eve, was an idea from this time that never fully gained traction, and remains a largely unexplored yet potentially transformative direction for programming. Literate programming is a programming methodology that combines a programming language with a documentation language, making programs more robust, more portable, and more easily maintained than programs written only in a highlevel language.
Literate programming, a practioners view tex users group. Knuth 1984 coined the term literate programming lp to describe his approach to program design. Knuths literate programming knut84 bent86a bent86b is one approach for shifting the programmers focus to include other humans as code consumers. He promoted a particular programming methodology called literate programming, which weaves comments into codes and make them more readable and easier to maintain. Many people make the mistake of thinking that literate programming is just better documentation. Knuth argued that more emphasis should be placed on explaining to humans what computers are meant to do, rather than simply instructing computers what to do. But knuths web and cweb are the only major literate programming tools that i know about that actively typeset the code. Literate programming has nothing to do with tools or style. Literate programming is a programming paradigm introduced by donald knuth in which a computer program is given an explanation of its logic in a natural language, such as english, interspersed with snippets of macros and traditional source code, from which compilable source code can be generated. Donald knuths original paper, where he coined the term literate programming. Here i describe the system i use and make a bit advertisement for this fantastic programming style. Jun 06, 2016 donald knuth, who is no small name in computing, proposes a new way of doing things in his literate programming. This technique is less well known then its deserve. Knuth is also a fan of abstracted programming languages like literate programming which he claims without it he wouldnt have been able to create a lot of the exercises in recent taocp volumes so anybody declaring that if youre just a java programmer you wont get any use out of the books are likely incorrect.
If you are writing a literate program, you are trying to communicate to another human separated in space and time. In doing so, literate programming facilitates the devel. Roberts this report is based on a course of the same name given at stanford university during autumn quarter, 1987. Some of the tools even support nonlatex formats for composing the documentation in the program, so you dont have to endure that if you dont like latex. Literate programming article about literate programming. Literate programming expands the role of the programmer to. Oct 01, 2015 his docbook literate programming tool really just a collection of xsl stylesheets, which is all you need to process literate programs written in xml is available on the docbook open repository on sourceforge. Literate programming is an approach to programming introduced by donald knuth in which a program is given as an explanation of the program logic in. The literate programming system that knuth designed did much, much more than immediately meets the eye, namely it overcome many shortcomings in the underlying programming language that the code generation tool generated from knuths source document, namely standard pascal. Literate programming article about literate programming by. Cweb, donald knuths favourite programming language this site also has examples of people using cweb to write literate programs. Donald knuth introduced the concept of literate programming as a method to im prove the quality of. This can make collaboration on a document difficult if the people youre collaborating with are not as sold on the tools as you are. As this manual aims to supply all information possibly relevant to a wide variety.
He argued that there needed to be a change in the way that programmers view the way they work. Recently, i restumbled on the idea of literate programming while leveling up with orgmodes, babel project. The web system can be described as the merging of documentation. Learn to program with literate programming hackaday. His docbook literate programming tool really just a collection of xsl stylesheets, which is all you need to process literate programs written in xml is available on the docbook open repository on sourceforge. Knuth computer science department, stanford university, stanford, ca 94305, usa the author and his associates have been experimenting for the past several years with a programming language and documentation system called web. Literate programming published in computer journal british computer society publication but it was clouded by knuth excessive attention to. The typesetting language enables all of the comprehension aids available in books such as pictures, diagrams, figures, tables, formatted equations, bibliographic references, table of contents, and index. Rather than writing the code in the order the compiler likes to see it, write the. Van wyk programming i n may and june 1986, programming pearls took up literate programming, an approach to programming espoused by donald knuth. One of the hard transitions to literate programming is literate thinking. The main idea is to treat a program as a piece of literature, addressed to human beings rather than to a computer. This is a modificaiton of and an implementation of knuth s literate programming technique. Ive been playing with various ways of doing literate programming in python.
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