The debugger perl5db.pl is a good counterexample to this thesis.

It has a big command loop where the users input is read and the documentation for each command is interspersed for each command section.

The documentation will show up in the same order like programmed and must stay at this chronological position.

This makes refactoring the code extremely difficult. Frankly it's a PITA.

I'm a fan of interspersed function docs with POD, but

• only use it for external documentation.
• don't make code position dependend on it
• remember subs can be moved, linear code normally can't

The documentation will show up in the same order like programmed and must stay at this chronological position.

This might make a case for literal programming (write code and documentation in the order one would want to read it, but reorder the code chunks in the order it should run in), but that comes with its own bag of problems and requires trade-offs that one might consider unacceptable.

You mean Literate Programming and for clarity POD isn't!

It doesn't allow reordering of doc or code (tangle/weave)

But Perl has the power of sub-modules* and one could "weave" .pod files instead.

Cheers Rolf
_{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery}

*) to structure code