Version 1 of Literate programming in a wiki

Updated 2003-02-19 10:10:13

19feb03 jcw - Here's a thought... Could we extend/use the wiki model to do Literate Programming?

The idea of Literate Programming is by Donald Knuth (see also [L1 ]):

• Donald Knuth. "Literate Programming (1984)" in Literate Programming. CSLI, 1992, pg. 99:

        Let us change our traditional attitude to the construction of
        programs: Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct
        a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining
        to human beings what we want a computer to do.

Wikit (any wiki in fact) has some striking similarities:

• it can easily mix free text and source code
• it has a way to cross-reference / hyperlink pages
• page titles make natural chapter/section names

Would there be value in bringing these things together? I think so:

• a single wikit document can be an entire self-documenting project (or package)
• think of collaborative work, by altering the wiki through the web
• there is a local mode, which may become good enough to edit with

Just rattling the cage a bit...