Paper of the Week: Literate Programming

This is part of our “Paper of the Week” series. For more info, check out our introductory blog post.

This week’s paper is Literate Programming by Donald Knuth. It was published in the May 1984 issue of The Computer Journal.

In this paper, Knuth introduces literate programming, a programming style where computer programs are written like essays with prose interleaved with code. Literate programming probably hasn’t caught on like Knuth had hoped when he wrote this, but it has a small, extremely dedicated following.

Literate Programming was submitted by Hacker Schooler Waldemar Quevedo who shared the following:

I like this paper a lot not only because it is written by Knuth and because it has one of the coolest quotable opening phrases I’ve seen: (“I believe that the time is ripe for significantly better…”) but also because it really shows what practicing literate programming does to you if you are to practice it.

In this paper, Knuth announces (maybe a bit too prematurely) about better times which are coming to the practices of software development based on his experiences of using the WEB system to craft his software.

By the end of the writing, Knuth shares how literate programming has consumed most of his workflow to the point that he sees little benefit of not using literate programming for any of his development.

As an Org mode user, I was surprised how literate programming with Org Babel gradually became the development environment I felt the most comfortable working with.

The abstract below doesn’t do justice to Knuth’s enthusiasm for literate programming, nor the humor and clarity with which the paper is written. If you’re not convinced, spend 3 minutes reading through the introduction. You won’t be disappointed.

The author and his associates have been experimenting for the past several years with a programming language and documentation system called WEB. This paper presents WEB by example, and discusses why the new system appears to be an improvement over previous ones.

Read Along

Read Along is a way for you to participate in Paper of the Week. All you have to do is read the paper, make something small in response (code or prose), and email us a link to what you made by noon Eastern Time next Monday.

There were no Read Along submissions to last week’s paper. We’re looking forward to seeing the literate programs you write this week!

Happy reading!