Re: Documentation Markup

[Robert Raschke <rtrlists@...>]

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 2:32 PM, steve donovan <steve.j.donovan@gmail.com> wrote:

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 3:25 PM, Robert Raschke <rtrlists@googlemail.com> wrote:
> LP does that in order to lift the ordering constraints your prog lang
> imposes. With modern languages this is no longer such a big concern.
> Although it is nice to be able to write LP code that has holes with neat
> readable placeholders which you fill in further down your document.

Ah, I see the point - the 'order of explanation' is not the same
necessarily as the order the language forces.

Lua order is pretty flexible, though you do have to declare local
functions up front as locals, and use a somewhat awkward 'NAME =
function(...' syntax later.  But how to do modules?

steve d.

One LP source file can produce multiple code files.

The biggest downside to LP, and usually a killer, is that any debugging references the code files, not the LP source. Only in languages where something like a #line directive is available, can you get your debug tools to point back to the LP source.

And there is very little in terms of IDE support in general. The modern practice of using "intelligent" IDE tools has won over the approach of exposition. As far as I can see LP is now the domain of people whose job is to produce an exposition of some bit of code or algorithm. And they are far and few between.

I myself use it in the beginning stages of a project, up until I am ready to ship, or until I have to collaborate. After that, the code rules. It suits my development approach, and I have some neat write up of what I tried to achieve. But once the code escapes my sole grasp, no amount of persuasion (on my part) will help in keeping the Literate Program alive in a project.

Robby