[Axiom-developer] Literate Programs

[daly]

Cliff,

Since you and others, like Ralf, have actually TRIED to write literate
programs your criticisms carry weight. You have experience.  I note
that those reviews seem to be at least semi-favorable.

I posted a list of half-a-dozen literate books. I find them immensely
readable and very insightful. I can understand the code because I
understand the ideas behind the code which are included in the
surrounding paragraphs. We need the same for the algebra.

It is trivially easy to complain about anything when you haven't
seriously tried to use the technology. I can think of a dozen
reasons not to use Ruby on Rails but I've never tried it. Most
of these criticisms fall into the categories of
  "It is time consuming" -- we have time
  "It slows us down"     -- not doing it slows everyone else
  "It is too hard"       -- no, it isn't. 
  "I'm used to raw code" -- that's fine for toy programs
  "The tools suck"       -- it's open source, make them better

What are the specific failings? Where did the tool not provide
sufficient support? What improvements need to be made? How can we
make the tools better (e.g. asdf understanding pamphlets).

It is easy to say "no". It is hard to propose "better".

Tim