Original-Via: uk.ac.uknet; Tue, 28 Jan 92 14:04:42 GMT
Jeff Dalton writes:
> Could someone please explain to me why there needs to be support
> for literate comments in the language (rather than in the editor
> or some other program) and why conventions involving > or
> .troff-like-commands are good ones? Maybe I'm just thick, but
> I don't get it.
I agree that the principle of literate programming is more important
than the particular notation used. The great advantages of fixing
the notation within the language are readability (I don't have to
master someone else's notation to read their program) and portability
(I can compile someone else's program without having to have a copy
of their editor or their clever filter program).
The former advantage is minor - the conventions are easy to understand.
However, I would argue strongly for the latter - it seems self-defeating
to design a common language like Haskell, and then have people write
programs whose source text is non-portable.
Nick
PS Kevin Hammond has pursuaded me that my request for program lines to
begin "> " was wrong - I withdraw it in favour of Phil Wadler's original
suggestion.
