A literate programming environment based on an extensible editor

The concept of literate programming was developed by Donald Knuth in the early eighties. Knuth believes the programs should be treated as works of literature. He developed the scWEB system to promote this style of programming. A scWEB system incorporates at least two languages: a high-level programming language and a formatting language as well as scWEB rules and constructs which tie the languages together. From a scWEB source, one can generate a high-level language source suitable for input to a compiler and eventual execution or a source suitable for input to a text formatter.;This research involved the creation of a prototype editing environment that would be supportive of the scWEB style of literate programming. The environment is based on GNU Emacs, a commonly available extensible editor.;The environment was subjectively tested with three different types of users. A group of student programmers who had limited scWEB experience used the environment successfully to perform a maintenance task on a significant scWEB code. An intensive user familiar with the scWEB style of literate programming used the environment in the development and debugging of a significant scWEB code over a four month period. An experienced scWEB programmer also used the environment in the development of a small code.;Since the environment was used successfully by three different types of users, we feel that the environment is viable and should be incorporated with other tools to form a complete literate programming environment. This tool and other should be integrated to make the scWEB style of literate programming more appealing to a wider user community.