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I think there's some distinctions that need to be made. IMHO, Literate programming can be an umbrella for a bunch of different things. Is it "notebook" style p

I think there's some distinctions that need to be made. IMHO, Literate programming can be an umbrella for a bunch of different things. Is it "notebook" style programming, like Mathematica, matlab, Jupyter, and markdown-based stuff like R/python + Quarto? In this mode, I think the focus is more on creating a document or communicating stuff typically with data analysis. And actually, "literate" is a very apt adjective for something that's ultimately intended to be a document of some kind. Or is it more general intended for writing arbitrary software applications and having everything in the source code? In other words, to understand the source, you just read the source and there are no other documents. The latter mode, I think, is still very much not around as far as I know (academic proof-of-concepts for papers don't count :-) ). Will it ever really exist?

taeric 3y ago
I have tried a few blog posts with literate style code. Some in a notebook style, like https://taeric.github.io/cube-permutations-1.html https://taeric.github.io/cube-permutations-1.html. in general, that style seems easier nowadays. There is Stanford GraphBase, and a really good MP3 book that are full programs. Not to mention TeX.
- mananaysiempre 3y ago
  Also the PCC compiler published A Retargetable C Compiler by Fraser & Hanson, as well as the PBRT renderer as described in the Academy Award winner Physically Based Rendering[1] by Pharr, Jacob, & Humphreys. As for instances where the point is more the book than the program, there’s C Interfaces and Implementations by Hanson, and while the “literate diffs” style used by Nystrom’s Crafting Interpreters[2] comes at the idea from a somewhat different angle, I’d say the effect is largely the same. Ulix[3] is arguably an academic exercise, but at the same time a full Unix-like kernel should count for something, shouldn’t it? The overwhelming popularity of TeX all too often makes people forget about METAFONT. The type of computer fonts advocated by the latter has unfortunately failed to gain popularity, and its descendant MetaPost has a lot of competition, but I think the language itself is much nicer (while remaining true to its macroexpander roots), and it’s another literate program of about the same size. [1] Gratis at https://pbr-book.org/ https://pbr-book.org/ [2] Gratis at http://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html http://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html [3] https://www.ulixos.org/ https://www.ulixos.org/
  - cxr 3y ago
    > the PCC compiler published A Retargetable C Compiler by Fraser & Hanson You're thinking of LCC. PCC is AT&T's compiler and the work of Johnson who also did yacc.
    - mananaysiempre 3y ago
      Right. That’s what I get for checking the ’net instead of literally flipping back to the introduction of the book I literally already had open. :/

taeric 3y ago

I have tried a few blog posts with literate style code. Some in a notebook style, like https://taeric.github.io/cube-permutations-1.html https://taeric.github.io/cube-permutations-1.html. in general, that style seems easier nowadays. There is Stanford GraphBase, and a really good MP3 book that are full programs. Not to mention TeX.

mananaysiempre 3y ago
Also the PCC compiler published A Retargetable C Compiler by Fraser & Hanson, as well as the PBRT renderer as described in the Academy Award winner Physically Based Rendering[1] by Pharr, Jacob, & Humphreys. As for instances where the point is more the book than the program, there’s C Interfaces and Implementations by Hanson, and while the “literate diffs” style used by Nystrom’s Crafting Interpreters[2] comes at the idea from a somewhat different angle, I’d say the effect is largely the same. Ulix[3] is arguably an academic exercise, but at the same time a full Unix-like kernel should count for something, shouldn’t it? The overwhelming popularity of TeX all too often makes people forget about METAFONT. The type of computer fonts advocated by the latter has unfortunately failed to gain popularity, and its descendant MetaPost has a lot of competition, but I think the language itself is much nicer (while remaining true to its macroexpander roots), and it’s another literate program of about the same size. [1] Gratis at https://pbr-book.org/ https://pbr-book.org/ [2] Gratis at http://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html http://craftinginterpreters.com/contents.html [3] https://www.ulixos.org/ https://www.ulixos.org/
- cxr 3y ago
  > the PCC compiler published A Retargetable C Compiler by Fraser & Hanson You're thinking of LCC. PCC is AT&T's compiler and the work of Johnson who also did yacc.
  - mananaysiempre 3y ago
    Right. That’s what I get for checking the ’net instead of literally flipping back to the introduction of the book I literally already had open. :/