Like many programmers, I tried out Literate Programming because Knuth seemed to like it. I read the book, I tried the tools... and it never worked for me.

Many years later, I saw an analysis of why literate programming never caught on (I need to find the reference). The analysis could be summed up in three points.

  1. A finite number of people can write code well
  2. A finite number of people can write prose well
  3. Literate programming is only useful for the intersection of those two sets.

Despite more than a decade learning to write more understandable code and better prose, I've never reached the point of being able to do both simultaneously well enough to be worth the other overhead of literate programming.

But, then again, maybe this old dog just can't learn a new trick.<shrug/>

G. Wade

In reply to Re: An Introduction to Literate Programming with perlWEB by gwadej
in thread An Introduction to Literate Programming with perlWEB by adamcrussell

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