Re: Literate Programming [was: A case where ...]

["Nick Roberts" <nickroberts@adaos.worldonline.co.uk>]

"Georg Bauhaus" <sb463ba@l1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de> wrote in message
news:a1pop2$lgk$1@a1-hrz.uni-duisburg.de...

> Several things might be interesting to consult here:
> ANNA,
> Lout (with Ada support, can turn on Lout mode in Ada comments)

Will do.

> How would you deal with the multi-syntax problem that Ada/Non-Ada
> switching will entail?

If the switching token must be on a line on its own, and is different to
anything else (likely) to be written in any other syntax, it shouldn't be
too much of a problem?

> : For the unfamiliar, the essence of 'literate programming' (invented by
the
> : heroic Prof. Don Knuth) is to combine software documentation, in its own
> : suitable markup language (e.g. TeX or DocBook), with the source code
itself,
> : in the same source file.
>
> Plus the capability to add readability by reordering chunks
> of source language code to help the reader, not the compiler
> (ex.: body of nested subprograms defined outside the declarative
> region of the enclosing subprogram in AdaWEB source, yet not making
> it separate, big switches squeezed to one half page or so, that from
> a readers point of view may seem similar to a limited PERFORM in COBOL).

Indeed, but then that would certainly require a tangle pre-processor; there
would be some advantages (for Ada code, at least) in avoiding the need for a
tangler. An alternative (perhaps a better one) would be make/build tools
that would work with (or have built-in) a tangler.

> How would that be advocacy given empirical results of advocating
> literate programming? :-)

Well *I'm* going to keep plugging away!

--
Best wishes,
Nick Roberts