Traditional Literate Programming: A Visual Guide

1. Core Concepts

Literate Programming, invented by Donald Knuth, treats programs as works of literature. The key insight: programs should be written for humans to read, with code and documentation interwoven.

2. The WEB System Architecture

Knuth’s original WEB system for Pascal:

3. Chunk Definition and Reference

The heart of literate programming - named code chunks:

4. Noweb System Flow

Norman Ramsey’s noweb - a simpler, language-agnostic approach:

5. Code Chunk Dependency Graph

How chunks reference each other:

6. Tangle Algorithm

The process of extracting code:

7. Weave Processing

Creating formatted documentation:

8. Org-mode Babel System

Modern literate programming in Emacs:

9. Language-Specific Tangling

How different languages handle chunk expansion:

10. Literate Programming Workflow

The complete development cycle:

11. Chunk Reuse Patterns

Common patterns for chunk organization:

12. Error Handling in Literate Systems

How errors propagate through the literate programming pipeline:

13. Modern Literate Programming Tools

Evolution and relationships:

Key Concepts Summary

Tangle

Weave

Chunks

Benefits