From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Sebastien Vauban" Subject: Re: Seeking advice for conditional code Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2013 09:24:55 +0100 Message-ID: <86r4l05tm0.fsf@somewhere.org> References: <86lib96zzl.fsf@iro.umontreal.ca> <86halx3w0f.fsf@somewhere.org> <868v796m3u.fsf@iro.umontreal.ca> <86d2wl3qsj.fsf@somewhere.org> <86a9rou5vt.fsf@iro.umontreal.ca> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Return-path: List-Id: "General discussions about Org-mode." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org Sender: emacs-orgmode-bounces+geo-emacs-orgmode=m.gmane.org-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org To: emacs-orgmode-mXXj517/zsQ@public.gmane.org Hi Fran=C3=A7ois, Fran=C3=A7ois Pinard wrote: > "Sebastien Vauban" > >> For curiosity, why aren't you considering tangling? > > Quick half of a reply, I'll revise the rest of your message later. > > That would be far too much of a change for the habits of the team, or at > least, this is how I perceive the equilibrium between developers. OK, you're not alone on that. This explains that. All I now write (be it SQL, Bash, AWK scripts or ...) is d'office LP'ed, bu= t I have the chance to be alone on that. Convincing others may prove to be (too) difficult. > Moreover, some of us are not even Emacs users. That's not a real show-stopper per se, as you could tangle code with markers (via the "comments" parameter), so that the source code could be directly edited by anyone, and later untangled (that is, written back in your "full document"). > When writing a program, the feeling still has to be that we write a > program, rather than a document describing the program, and from which > the program could be extracted. Python is rather descriptive as a > language, and while comments are useful, they might be less needed than > in other languages. This is debatable, of course :-). > > The documentation is meant for users, and it was strongly suggested that > we try to keep the documentation within the program as much as possible, > as a way to ease keeping the documentation and the program in good > sync. Some of us really enjoy Org mode, and this is how came the idea > of this compromise of writing Python doc-strings using Org. "My" answer: #+begin_quote 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 wan= t a computer to do. The practitioner of literate programming can be regarded as an essayist, whose main concern is with exposition and excellence of style. Such an author, with thesaurus in hand, chooses the names of variables carefully and explains what each variable means. He or she strives for a program that is comprehensible because its concepts have been introduced in an order that is best for human understanding, using a mixture of formal a= nd informal methods that reinforce each other. --- Donald Knuth #+end_quote One important aspect here, is that, with LP, you can present your program in an order which makes sense for the "story". It can be tangled in a totally different order. Best regards, Seb --=20 Sebastien Vauban