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In my experience, when you say "literate programming", most people think perl POD or literate Haskell before CWEB and similar. This was certainly the case for
by dllthomas 11y ago
In my experience, when you say "literate programming", most people think perl POD or literate Haskell before CWEB and similar. This was certainly the case for me before making a point of reading what Knuth had actually written (some many years back). I think that's unfortunate, and I think it's valuable to educate people that there's more ideas there than present in some of these systems, and that there are systems supporting more. But I think there are more constructive ways than ascribing malfeasance or incompetence to what seems itself a useful (if not maximally useful) piece of education.
- akkartik 11y agoYeah, it's a couple of years old, and I too am a bit embarrassed when I read it now. It was a rant, read it as such. I find Literate Programming to be strictly an improvement over conventional programming. But "quasi-literate" systems to beautify programs aren't really Literate Programming, and their benefits are more questionable, since they pollute what the term means and keep people from realizing what Literate Programming can be. That's my frustration.