Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Literate programming
Summary
Literate programming is a programming paradigm introduced in 1984 by Donald Knuth in which a computer program is given as an explanation of how it works in a natural language, such as English, interspersed (embedded) with snippets of macros and traditional source code, from which compilable source code can be generated. The approach is used in scientific computing and in data science routinely for reproducible research and open access purposes. Literate programming tools are used by millions of programmers today.
The literate programming paradigm, as conceived by Donald Knuth, represents a move away from writing computer programs in the manner and order imposed by the computer, and instead gives programmers macros to develop programs in the order demanded by the logic and flow of their thoughts. Literate programs are written as an exposition of logic in more natural language in which macros are used to hide abstractions and traditional source code, more like the text of an essay.
Literate programming (LP) tools are used to obtain two representations from a source file: one understandable by a compiler or interpreter, the "tangled" code, and another for viewing as formatted documentation, which is said to be "woven" from the literate source. While the first generation of literate programming tools were computer language-specific, the later ones are language-agnostic and exist beyond the individual programming languages.
Literate programming was first introduced in 1984 by Donald Knuth, who intended it to create programs that were suitable literature for human beings. He implemented it at Stanford University as a part of his research on algorithms and digital typography. The implementation was called "WEB" since he believed that it was one of the few three-letter words of English that had not yet been applied to computing. However, it resembles the complicated nature of software delicately pieced together from simple materials. The practice of literate programming has seen an important resurgence in the 2010s with the use of computational notebooks, especially in data science.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (22)
ENG-209: Data science for engineers with Python
Ce cours est divisé en deux partie. La première partie présente le langage Python et les différences notables entre Python et C++ (utilisé dans le cours précédent ICC). La seconde partie est une intro
COM-490: Large-scale data science for real-world data
This hands-on course teaches the tools & methods used by data scientists, from researching solutions to scaling up
prototypes to Spark clusters. It exposes the students to the entire data science pipe
MATH-661: Advanced Scientific Programming in Python
This seminar teaches the participants to use advanced Python concepts for writing easier to read, more flexible and faster code.
It teaches concepts in a hands-on and tangible fashion, providing examp
Related lectures (44)
Advanced Pandas Functions
Focuses on advanced pandas functions for data manipulation, exploration, and visualization with Python, emphasizing the importance of understanding and preparing data.
Binary Sentiment Classifier Training
Covers the training of a binary sentiment classifier using an RNN.
Structures and Mechanisms: Opening a Box
Explores the analysis of structures and mechanisms through a sample problem of opening a box with a string-held lid.
Related publications (19)
Toward Code Review Notebooks
Denis Gillet, Maria Jesus Rodriguez Triana, Juan Carlos Farah, Sandy Ingram
Peer code review has proven to be a valuable tool in software engineering. However, integrating code reviews into educational contexts is particularly challenging due to the complexity of both the process and popular code review tools. We propose to addres ...
IEEE2022Promoting Computational Thinking Skills in Non-Computer Science Students Gamifying Computational Notebooks to Increase Student Engagement
Denis Gillet, Juan Carlos Farah, Adrian Christian Holzer, Marc Lafuente Martinez, Pascal Felber
Computational thinking (CT) skills are becoming increasingly relevant for future professionals across all domains, beyond computer science (CS). As such, an increasing number of bachelor and masters programs outside of the computer science discipline integ ...
2022Artist Residencies for Innovation: Development of a Global Framework
Nicolas Henchoz, Tania Moreira
Artists can play a major role in the success of innovation. The European program STARTS aims to increase their impact in high-tech environments. An international consortium has the mission to implement 45 residencies and set a complete framework for such p ...
ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY2019Related people (1)
Related concepts (15)
Programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming language is usually split into the two components of syntax (form) and semantics (meaning), which are usually defined by a formal language. Some languages are defined by a specification document (for example, the C programming language is specified by an ISO Standard) while other languages (such as Perl) have a dominant implementation that is treated as a reference.
Comment (computer programming)
In computer programming, a comment is a programmer-readable explanation or annotation in the source code of a computer program. They are added with the purpose of making the source code easier for humans to understand, and are generally ignored by compilers and interpreters. The syntax of comments in various programming languages varies considerably. Comments are sometimes also processed in various ways to generate documentation external to the source code itself by documentation generators, or used for integration with source code management systems and other kinds of external programming tools.
MATLAB
MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages. Although MATLAB is intended primarily for numeric computing, an optional toolbox uses the MuPAD symbolic engine allowing access to symbolic computing abilities.