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I think that it did catch on, mainly under the form of iPython notebooks.
by agravier 10y ago
I think that it did catch on, mainly under the form of iPython notebooks.
- todd8 10y agoYes, the iPython notebooks are great for reproducible reports. Literate programming, as practiced by Knuth, is a little bit different. The program's output, graphs, tables, etc. isn't intermixed with the text as it is in a Jupyer notebook. A literate program is actually documentation and source mixed together in a web file. Two different programs (tangle and weave) can be run over this literate code. One extracts a (LaTeX) document suitable for publication and the other extracts a program (with all of the documentation stripped out) to be fed into a compiler. The best example I know of is Computers & Typesetting, Volume B: TeX: The Program [1], a 624 page book that is a complete exposition on the TeX program, generated by weave; the same web source run through tangle generates the TeX program itself (the typesetting program upon which LaTeX is built out of TeX macros). Knuth is a fan of this method of program construction. Of course, he is not only a phenomenal programmer; he is a great writer skilled at explaining complex algorithms and code. I can see why literate programming suits him. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Computers-Typesetting-B-TeX-Program/dp/0201134373/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1472702616&sr=8-7&keywords=computers+%26+typesetting https://www.amazon.com/Computers-Typesetting-B-TeX-Program/d...