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Literate Programming is one of those ideas I keep coming to. There is an idea there that touches on something I find to be true about software development, name

Literate Programming is one of those ideas I keep coming to. There is an idea there that touches on something I find to be true about software development, namely that the communication of an idea to other humans is the most critical piece. There is a similar idea in Naur's paper "Programming as Theory Building." That said, I've never loved the LaTeX-centric nature of most tools. I don't like heavier markup systems while I am writing prose, which is why I wrote SpiralWeb (https://github.com/michaeljmcd/spiralweb https://github.com/michaeljmcd/spiralweb) as a Pandoc/Markdown centric tool.

sidpatil 6y ago
Obligatory shilling of Org-babel, for those using Emacs and Org-mode: https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/ https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/
- kmstout 6y ago
  I've been using Org for a little over a year, and it's actually quite nice. To support a blog post last year (https://reindeereffect.github.io/2020/05/05/index.html https://reindeereffect.github.io/2020/05/05/index.html) I did my own quick and dirty rendition of chunk labels, chunk chain navigation, and clickable references. Lately I've built a faster, mostly drop-in replacement for org-babel-tangle (that doesn't unnecessarily clobber files that haven't changed); and I'm finishing up a more complete chunk formatter for HTML export, along with usable chunk index generation. Once that's done, I'll quit nerd sniping myself on literate programming systems for awhile and finish up a missive on programming a Turing machine to solve the Towers of Hanoi.
  - stevekemp 6y ago
    I keep meaning to experiment with bable/tangle in Emacs. I setup a simple literate configuration of my init file via markdown, which worked out really well, but doing it "properly" in org-mode would be a nice evolution. With markdown I just search for code-blocks, write them all sequentially to a temporary buffer and evaluate once done. So it is very simplistic, but also being able to write and group things is useful: https://github.com/skx/dotfiles/blob/master/.emacs.d/init.md https://github.com/skx/dotfiles/blob/master/.emacs.d/init.md
loa_in_ 6y ago
I found Mr. Ross' funnelweb utility to have the best syntax. Unique and easy to read. http://ross.net/funnelweb/tutorial/index.html http://ross.net/funnelweb/tutorial/index.html Unfortunately the only known implementation was last updated over two decades ago, and is written in pretty hard to understand C. I asked for permission and started a repository here: https://github.com/loa-in-/fw-utf8 https://github.com/loa-in-/fw-utf8 I currently have it unmodified there, except for disabled check for ASCII range. (this modification is included in initial commit, sorry, my bad). Otherwise code is the same.
- nerdponx 6y ago
  It's unfortunate that Funnelweb itself wasn't written in a literate style!
  - rixed 6y ago
    For the record, I wrote portia[0], based on funnelweb and which accept a (mostly) compatible syntax, in a literate style. Its source/doc can be browsed [1]. I still use it from time to time, especially for small, well defined projects, because I find it useful to have to argue with myself when designing a software. It's not so much about producing a nice documentation or a proper exposition of some idea, than it is about having to formulate all the reasoning, the alternatives, and the choices. [0]: https://github.com/rixed/portia https://github.com/rixed/portia [1]: http://rixed.github.io/portia/ http://rixed.github.io/portia/
    - loa_in_ 6y ago
      Your project is just enough working (and up to spec!) that I might just restart my (100% compatible) funnelweb resurrection in literate format. Thank you!
fspeech 6y ago
I am less convinced now after an initial period of enthusiasm. I can get around things locally fairly well with or without assistance. What takes effort to comprehend a code base is its overarching organization and internal interfaces that often only exist in the heads of the creators. But if one is into literate programming it is definitely a must to check out the Leo Editor http://leoeditor.com http://leoeditor.com
chriswarbo 6y ago
I use a couple of Pandoc scripts to run code during the render of my Web site: http://chriswarbo.net/projects/activecode http://chriswarbo.net/projects/activecode I originally tried Emacs org-mode babel, but it didn't really fit the 'batch pipeline' flow I wanted.

sidpatil 6y ago

Obligatory shilling of Org-babel, for those using Emacs and Org-mode: https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/ https://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/babel/

kmstout 6y ago
I've been using Org for a little over a year, and it's actually quite nice. To support a blog post last year (https://reindeereffect.github.io/2020/05/05/index.html https://reindeereffect.github.io/2020/05/05/index.html) I did my own quick and dirty rendition of chunk labels, chunk chain navigation, and clickable references. Lately I've built a faster, mostly drop-in replacement for org-babel-tangle (that doesn't unnecessarily clobber files that haven't changed); and I'm finishing up a more complete chunk formatter for HTML export, along with usable chunk index generation. Once that's done, I'll quit nerd sniping myself on literate programming systems for awhile and finish up a missive on programming a Turing machine to solve the Towers of Hanoi.
- stevekemp 6y ago
  I keep meaning to experiment with bable/tangle in Emacs. I setup a simple literate configuration of my init file via markdown, which worked out really well, but doing it "properly" in org-mode would be a nice evolution. With markdown I just search for code-blocks, write them all sequentially to a temporary buffer and evaluate once done. So it is very simplistic, but also being able to write and group things is useful: https://github.com/skx/dotfiles/blob/master/.emacs.d/init.md https://github.com/skx/dotfiles/blob/master/.emacs.d/init.md

loa_in_ 6y ago

I found Mr. Ross' funnelweb utility to have the best syntax. Unique and easy to read. http://ross.net/funnelweb/tutorial/index.html http://ross.net/funnelweb/tutorial/index.html Unfortunately the only known implementation was last updated over two decades ago, and is written in pretty hard to understand C. I asked for permission and started a repository here: https://github.com/loa-in-/fw-utf8 https://github.com/loa-in-/fw-utf8 I currently have it unmodified there, except for disabled check for ASCII range. (this modification is included in initial commit, sorry, my bad). Otherwise code is the same.

nerdponx 6y ago
It's unfortunate that Funnelweb itself wasn't written in a literate style!
- rixed 6y ago
  For the record, I wrote portia[0], based on funnelweb and which accept a (mostly) compatible syntax, in a literate style. Its source/doc can be browsed [1]. I still use it from time to time, especially for small, well defined projects, because I find it useful to have to argue with myself when designing a software. It's not so much about producing a nice documentation or a proper exposition of some idea, than it is about having to formulate all the reasoning, the alternatives, and the choices. [0]: https://github.com/rixed/portia https://github.com/rixed/portia [1]: http://rixed.github.io/portia/ http://rixed.github.io/portia/
  - loa_in_ 6y ago
    Your project is just enough working (and up to spec!) that I might just restart my (100% compatible) funnelweb resurrection in literate format. Thank you!

fspeech 6y ago

I am less convinced now after an initial period of enthusiasm. I can get around things locally fairly well with or without assistance. What takes effort to comprehend a code base is its overarching organization and internal interfaces that often only exist in the heads of the creators. But if one is into literate programming it is definitely a must to check out the Leo Editor http://leoeditor.com http://leoeditor.com

chriswarbo 6y ago

I use a couple of Pandoc scripts to run code during the render of my Web site: http://chriswarbo.net/projects/activecode http://chriswarbo.net/projects/activecode I originally tried Emacs org-mode babel, but it didn't really fit the 'batch pipeline' flow I wanted.