On Mon, Oct 17, 2022 at 10:17 AM Thomas Passin <[email protected]> wrote:

> This paragraph caught my eye:
>
> "One of the early experiences that led me to focus on communication was
> discovering Knuth's Literate Programming: a progam should read like a book.
> It should have plot, rhythm, and delightful little turns of phrase. When
> Ward Cunningham and I first read about literate programs, we decided to try
> it. We sat down with one of the cleanest pieces of code in the Smalltalk
> image, the ScrollController, and tried to make it into a story. Hours later
> we had completely rewritten the code on our way to a reasonable paper.
> Every time a bit of logic was a little hard to explain, it was easier to
> rewrite the code than explain why the code was hard to understand. The
> demands of communication changed our perspective on coding."
>

Thanks for this. As you know, I have a different opinion. Rather than a
novel, programs are more like a reference book. Narrative is great for a
Theory of Operation. For everything else, not so much.

Edward

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