WEB

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WEB is a computer programming system created by Donald E. Knuth as the first implementation of what he called "literate programming": the idea that one could create software as works of literature, by embedding source code inside descriptive text, rather than the reverse (as is common practice in most programming languages), in an order that is convenient for exposition to human readers, rather than in the order demanded by the compiler.

Computer programming Process that leads from an original formulation of a computing problem to executable computer programs

Computer programming is the process of designing and building an executable computer program for accomplishing a specific computing task. Programming involves tasks such as: analysis, generating algorithms, profiling algorithms' accuracy and resource consumption, and the implementation of algorithms in a chosen programming language. The source code of a program is written in one or more languages that are intelligible to programmers, rather than machine code, which is directly executed by the central processing unit. The purpose of programming is to find a sequence of instructions that will automate the performance of a task on a computer, often for solving a given problem. The process of programming thus often requires expertise in several different subjects, including knowledge of the application domain, specialized algorithms, and formal logic.

Literate programming Programming paradigm

Literate programming is a programming paradigm introduced by Donald Knuth in which a program is given as an explanation of the program logic in a natural language, such as English, interspersed with snippets of macros and traditional source code, from which a compilable source code can be generated.

Software Non-tangible executable component of a computer

Computer software, or simply software, is a collection of data or computer instructions that tell the computer how to work. This is in contrast to physical hardware, from which the system is built and actually performs the work. In computer science and software engineering, computer software is all information processed by computer systems, programs and data. Computer software includes computer programs, libraries and related non-executable data, such as online documentation or digital media. Computer hardware and software require each other and neither can be realistically used on its own.

WEB consists of two secondary programs: TANGLE, which produces compilable Pascal code from the source texts, and WEAVE, which produces nicely-formatted, printable documentation using TeX.

TeX, stylized within the system as TeX, is a typesetting system which was designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. TeX is a popular means of typesetting complex mathematical formulae; it has been noted as one of the most sophisticated digital typographical systems.

CWEB is a version of WEB for the C programming language, while noweb is a separate literate programming tool, which is inspired by WEB (as reflected in the name) and which is language agnostic.

CWEB is a computer programming system created by Donald Knuth and Silvio Levy as a follow-up to Knuth's WEB literate programming system, using the C programming language instead of Pascal.

C (programming language) general-purpose programming language

C is a general-purpose, imperative computer programming language supporting structured programming, lexical variable scope, and recursion, while a static type system prevents unintended operations. By design, C provides constructs that map efficiently to typical machine instructions, and has found lasting use in applications previously coded in assembly language. Such applications include operating systems, as well as various application software for computers ranging from supercomputers to embedded systems.

noweb is a literate programming tool, created in 1989–1999 by Norman Ramsey, and designed to be simple, easily extensible and language independent.

The most significant programs written in WEB are TeX and Metafont. Modern TeX distributions use another program Web2C to convert WEB source to C.

Metafont is a description language used to define raster fonts. It is also the name of the interpreter that executes Metafont code, generating the bitmap fonts that can be embedded into e.g. PostScript. Metafont was devised by Donald Knuth as a counterpart to his TeX typesetting system.

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Integrated development environment software application used to develop software

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger. Some IDEs, such as NetBeans and Eclipse, contain the necessary compiler, interpreter, or both; others, such as SharpDevelop and Lazarus, do not.

LaTeX is a document preparation system. When writing, the writer uses plain text as opposed to the formatted text found in WYSIWYG word processors like Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer and Apple Pages. The writer uses markup tagging conventions to define the general structure of a document, to stylise text throughout a document, and to add citations and cross-references. A TeX distribution such as TeX Live or MikTeX is used to produce an output file suitable for printing or digital distribution. Within the typesetting system, its name is stylised as LaTeX.

Markup language modern system for annotating a document

In computer text processing, a markup language is a system for annotating a document in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from the text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of paper manuscripts, i.e., the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a red or blue pencil on authors' manuscripts. In digital media this "blue pencil instruction text" was replaced by tags, which indicate what the parts of the document are, rather than details of how they might be shown on some display. This lets authors avoid formatting every instance of the same kind of thing redundantly. It also avoids the specification of fonts and dimensions, which may not apply to many users.

Pascal is an imperative and procedural programming language, designed by Niklaus Wirth as a small, efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring. It is named in honor of the French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal.

In computer science, an interpreter is a computer program that directly executes, i.e. performs, instructions written in a programming or scripting language, without requiring them previously to have been compiled into a machine language program. An interpreter generally uses one of the following strategies for program execution:

  1. Parse the source code and perform its behavior directly;
  2. Translate source code into some efficient intermediate representation and immediately execute this;
  3. Explicitly execute stored precompiled code made by a compiler which is part of the interpreter system.

The LaTeX Project Public License (LPPL) is a software license originally written for the LaTeX system. Software distributed under the terms of the LPPL can be regarded as free software; however, it is not copylefted.

Syntax highlighting Tool of editors for programming, scripting and markup

Syntax highlighting is a feature of text editors that are used for programming, scripting, or markup languages, such as HTML. The feature displays text, especially source code, in different colors and fonts according to the category of terms. This feature facilitates writing in a structured language such as a programming language or a markup language as both structures and syntax errors are visually distinct. Highlighting does not affect the meaning of the text itself; it is intended only for human readers.

<i>Computers and Typesetting</i>

Computers and Typesetting is a 5-volume set of books by Donald Knuth published in 1986 describing the TeX and Metafont systems for digital typography. Knuth's computers and typesetting project was the result of his frustration with the lack of decent software for the typesetting of mathematical and technical documents. The results of this project include TeX for typesetting, Metafont for font construction and the Computer Modern typefaces that are the default fonts used by TeX. In the series of five books Knuth not only describes the TeX and Metafont languages, he also describes and documents the source code of the TeX and Metafont interpreters, and the source code for the Computer Modern fonts used by TeX. The book set stands as a tour de force demonstration of literate programming.

Knuth reward check

Knuth reward checks are checks or check-like certificates awarded by computer scientist Donald Knuth for finding technical, typographical, or historical errors, or making substantial suggestions for his publications. The MIT Technology Review describes the checks as "among computerdom's most prized trophies".

Line breaking, also known as word wrapping, is the process of breaking a section of text into lines such that it will fit in the available width of a page, window or other display area. In text display, line wrap is the feature of continuing on a new line when a line is full, such that each line fits in the viewable window, allowing text to be read from top to bottom without any horizontal scrolling. Word wrap is the additional feature of most text editors, word processors, and web browsers, of breaking lines between words rather than within words, when possible. Word wrap makes it unnecessary to hard-code newline delimiters within paragraphs, and allows the display of text to adapt flexibly and dynamically to displays of varying sizes.

Leo (text editor) text editor

Leo is an open-source text editor/outliner that features clones as its central tool of organization, navigation, customization and scripting.

3DLDF package for three-dimensional drawing

GNU 3DLDF is a GNU software package for three-dimensional technical drawing. Currently, its only form of output is MetaPost code. GNU 3DLDF is written in C++ using the CWEB package created by Donald Knuth and Silvio Levy. It is intended, among other things, to provide a convenient way of creating 3D graphics for inclusion in TeX documents and to fit in with the "family" of programs associated with TeX. It was written by Laurence D. Finston. 3DLDF stands for "3D" plus the initials of the author (LDF). This name was chosen because the author considered it unlikely that it would clash with the name of any other software package for 3D graphics.

In computing, a compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language or computer language, into another computer language. The most common reason for transforming source code is to create an executable program.

<i>Coders at work</i> book (2009)

Coders at Work: Reflections on the Craft of Programming (ISBN 1-430-21948-3) is a 2009 book by Peter Seibel comprising interviews with 15 highly accomplished programmers. The primary topics in these interviews include how the interviewees learned programming, how they debug code, their favorite languages and tools, their opinions on literate programming, proofs, code reading and so on.

References

    Donald Knuth American computer scientist (born 1938)

    Donald Ervin Knuth is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University.


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