5 ms·

Oscar winning book about rendering accurately 3D scenes, written in literate programming : https://www.pbrt.org/ https://www.pbrt.org/

WillAdams 2y ago
I've tried to collect a list of books written thus at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=literateprograms https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams... (please excuse _A Philosophy of Software Design_ EDIT and the two _Structure..._ books --- they were just too influential on me to not list) I would be glad of any I have missed, or other such lists.
lupire 2y ago
Fascinating. I think it would be much easier to read if it were formatted in 2-pane format, with the English and math on one pane, and the code on the side, aligned to match. Working from the source code of the program/book and the Literate Code renderer program, it wouldn't be so hard to write a variant transformation to lay out in side-by-side fashion. Possibly could need some extra markup code, though much could be inferred simply from "comment-followed-by-code implies comment-aside-code" rule. As it is, the inline code is a distraction from the text and math, and vice versa.
- WillAdams 2y ago
  There shouldn't be reason one couldn't use LaTeX to create such a typeset representation. Integrating the inline code is the responsibility of the writer.
  - BlueTemplar 2y ago
    The problem with (La)TeX is that it's designed for fixed layout documents. Great for print and slides, bad for most digital documents.
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      One can always just measure the current \textwidth (or other dimension) and make adjustments to typesetting based on that.
      - BlueTemplar 2y ago
        This sounds hacky, so probably will be slow and/or buggy.
        WillAdams 2y ago
        It's no slower than any other calculation, and works reliably in my experience.
magicalhippo 2y ago
By far the best programming book I've ever read, by orders of magnitude. I think the literate programming style fit this book well, but the main reason is simply that it tackles not just the theoretical side but also the practical side in great detail. In my experience a lot of programming books focus a lot on either and ignore the other, and that leads to frustration when trying to implement stuff in practice.

WillAdams 2y ago

I've tried to collect a list of books written thus at: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams?ref=nav_mybooks&shelf=literateprograms https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/21394355-william-adams... (please excuse _A Philosophy of Software Design_ EDIT and the two _Structure..._ books --- they were just too influential on me to not list) I would be glad of any I have missed, or other such lists.

lupire 2y ago

Fascinating. I think it would be much easier to read if it were formatted in 2-pane format, with the English and math on one pane, and the code on the side, aligned to match. Working from the source code of the program/book and the Literate Code renderer program, it wouldn't be so hard to write a variant transformation to lay out in side-by-side fashion. Possibly could need some extra markup code, though much could be inferred simply from "comment-followed-by-code implies comment-aside-code" rule. As it is, the inline code is a distraction from the text and math, and vice versa.

WillAdams 2y ago
There shouldn't be reason one couldn't use LaTeX to create such a typeset representation. Integrating the inline code is the responsibility of the writer.
- BlueTemplar 2y ago
  The problem with (La)TeX is that it's designed for fixed layout documents. Great for print and slides, bad for most digital documents.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    One can always just measure the current \textwidth (or other dimension) and make adjustments to typesetting based on that.
    - BlueTemplar 2y ago
      This sounds hacky, so probably will be slow and/or buggy.
      - WillAdams 2y ago
        It's no slower than any other calculation, and works reliably in my experience.

magicalhippo 2y ago

By far the best programming book I've ever read, by orders of magnitude. I think the literate programming style fit this book well, but the main reason is simply that it tackles not just the theoretical side but also the practical side in great detail. In my experience a lot of programming books focus a lot on either and ignore the other, and that leads to frustration when trying to implement stuff in practice.