From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,5d0b5af12e09c9d4 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Nick Roberts" Subject: Re: HTML as GNAT source/Knuth's Web Date: 1998/02/10 Message-ID: <01bd3364$2c898c80$LocalHost@xhv46.dial.pipex.com>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 323760555 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <9802031420.AA16822@nile.gnat.com><3.0.3.32.19980204153401.0085a970@mail.4dcomm.com> <34DA31D0.820918F4@filnet.fr> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Organization: UUNet UK server (post doesn't reflect views of UUNet UK) Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Date: 1998-02-10T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: Who remembers Don Knuth's 'Web'? This was a wonderful idea (IMHO!), in which pieces of the source code (of any programming language) of a program were embedded in a text document (TEX or whatever) which also contained the documentation for the code. The trick was that the pieces were named, and other pieces could be embedded, macro-like, into a piece of code, by name. I tried this idea out myself, in my youth (many moons ago...), and I liked it. Two special programs were needed: one to 'spin' the web document into a file suitable for printing (or browsing or whatever); one to 'tangle' the web document to produce the source code for compilation. Knuth coined the deliberately perjorative phrase "literate programming" for this techinique. Once you got used to it, the results could be very neat! The best thing about it (and I suppose the worst too) was that it practically forced you to properly document your program as you wrote it. In an industry which highly valued the production of good quality software, this idea would have been a breakthrough. Needless to say, in reality it never caught on! -- == Nick Roberts ================================================ == Croydon, UK =========================== == ================ == Proprietor, ThoughtWing Software ========== == Independent Software Development Consultant ====== == Nick.Roberts@dial.pipex.com ==== == Voicemail & Fax +44 181-405 1124 === == == == I live not in myself, but I become == === Portion of that around me; and to me == ==== High mountains are a feeling, but the hum == ======= Of human cities torture. =========== -- Byron [Childe Harold]