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IMHO, attempts to show literate programming on screen are doomed to meet with mediocre success. DEK invented literate programming with printed books in mind. I
by mci 5y ago
IMHO, attempts to show literate programming on screen are doomed to meet with mediocre success. DEK invented literate programming with printed books in mind. I dare say that the only successful literate programs are books printed on paper.
First, in a printed book, it is easier to find a previous page and compare a fragment on it with the current fragment. Second, a printed book has no links tempting you with the words "CLICK ME" to disrupt the flow so you can read it from cover to cover with fewer distractions. Third, anecdotally, I can see flaws much easier on a printout than on screen, both in programs and in texts.
- kwhitefoot 5y ago> in a printed book, it is easier to find a previous page and compare a fragment on it with the current fragment. This is why I like plain text for everything (or Emacs Org Mode) because then I can have multiple frames showing different parts of the same buffer in Emacs.
- medstrom 5y agoYou can also create several browser tabs visiting the same page. Of course, no one thinks to do that.
- davegauer 5y agoMake that several browser windows. And that's a good point. I sometimes end up inefficiently scrolling up and down a document to reference different parts of it. It almost never occurs to me to open another browser window with the same page for side-by-side reference.
- floodyberry- 5y agoI always feel like I'm missing something about literate programming because every example is "godawful". Transitioning between text and context-less code fragments littered with markup is incredibly jarring, and instead of something "written for humans", you now have something that is neither text _or_ code that you have to piece together and hold in your head as you go.