1. Programmers and code review tools are not very good at making sure comments and documentation are updated when code is.
2. People see literate programming as primarily for documentation-focused or teaching purposes.
The statistics in the article we're commenting on suggest that more software systems should be documentation/teaching focused, since the "learning the system" phase is where most of the time goes.
> 2. People see literate programming as primarily for documentation-focused or teaching purposes.
I agree. Specifically, it's for teaching my future forgetful self what the hell this bit of code is supposed to do. Especially if waterbed theory appears to apply and it's inherently a juggling act of interlocked complex systems.
I will admit that I am in group 2. I always saw it as something exclusively used for teaching. I have a project that I basically abandoned because of a lack of free time and there is little hope that my friend will understand the code base without my help. If literate programming can help with that project I'll be sold on it.
I saw this topic brought up in a video I was watching yesterday https://youtu.be/SzA2YODtgK4?t=1519
There are 2 reasons:
1. Programmers and code review tools are not very good at making sure comments and documentation are updated when code is.
2. People see literate programming as primarily for documentation-focused or teaching purposes.
The statistics in the article we're commenting on suggest that more software systems should be documentation/teaching focused, since the "learning the system" phase is where most of the time goes.