I've found literate programming helps in one main situation: where I am writing and want to force myself to very thoroughly think through a difficult and self-c

I've found literate programming helps in one main situation: where I am writing and want to force myself to very thoroughly think through a difficult and self-contained section of code that has to be understood as a whole. In that case, the narrative format makes me much less likely to overlook edge cases, and I find it easier to go back in and make changes later on. I wouldn't ever write a larger system in that way, but on that scale it's like working with a metronome in music: it's a form of discipline that produces almost magical results.