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Literate Programming in the Large

Next Day Video · talk · Watch on YouTube

Software practice, open source & careersFunctional programming

What it is

Timothy Daly, an original author of the Axiom computer algebra system, talks about turning a large Common Lisp codebase into a literate program. He argues code should be written as readable manuals, and the talk was given at Write the Docs 2013.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN recommends it in literate programming threads as a rare look at applying the idea to a huge, complex codebase, though some find it meandering.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2014, last 2024

What HN commenters said

  1. “giving high level overviews of our problems and specifying their implementation details inside the manuals.”

    Tim Daly on why code should be written as manuals.

    sparkie, 2014-04 · Recommendation · in “You Don't Read Code, You Explore It”

  2. “well worth watching: it talks about real, huge comolex systems, and how lp can help bring them back under control”

    Talk on using literate programming for huge codebases.

    e12e, 2016-05 · Recommendation · in “Final “STEPS Toward the Reinvention of Programming” Paper [pdf]”

  3. “A nice talk about it”

    Talk on writing programs as readable books.

    elviejo, 2017-05 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: Legion, an as-simple-as-possible blockchain server written in Haskell”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: literate programming, axiom, common lisp, documentation, legacy code

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