ptpt / lips

Literate Programming Utils

Literate Programming Utils

Introduction

lips is a set of quick-and-dirty utils designed for inverse literate programming, i.e. generating documentation from source code.

This documentation is generated from its source by lips.

Installation

$ make install

It merely copies lips/* to /usr/local/bin. If you don't need them all, feel free to pick only the ones you need.

Examples

Source code -> Markdown

We have a JavaScript file examples/say.js. Its comments are written in Markdown.

// ## Your First Program

// `say` is a function that says something
var say = function(something) {
    // something goes to stdout
    console.log(something);
};

// #+ignore just put words below, I'll hide them for you
// test it
say('hello world');
// #+endignore

Run the command below, which does 3 things:

1. uncomment all comments in say.js
2. highlight the code block, and
3. ignore the test block

$ uncomment.awk codeout="highlight.sh javascript" examples/say.js | ignore.awk

It outputs a markdown documentation:

## Your First Program

`say` is a function that says something
{% highlight javascript %}
var say = function(something) {
    // something goes to stdout
    console.log(something);
};
{% endhighlight %}

Include partials

We have a main markdown file examples/main.md:

hello world
===========

#+sh cat intro.md

#+sh uncomment.awk codeout="highlight.sh javascript" say.js | ignore.awk

Note that the special syntax #+sh is not a markdown syntax; it tells lips/sh.awk that here is a command, please execute the command and replace here with its output. This file contains two commands cat intro.md and uncomment.awk say.js ....

intro.md (it is also located under the folder examples) looks like this:

## Introduction

Programming is fun. In this article we are going to teach you how to
program in JavaScript.

Include them in examples/main.md with one command:

$ sh.awk examples/main.md

It outputs:

hello world
===========

## Introduction

Programming is fun. In this article we are going to teach you how to
program in JavaScript.

## Your First Program

`say` is a function that says something
{% highlight javascript %}
var say = function(something) {
    // something goes to stdout
    console.log(something);
};
{% endhighlight %}

Usages

block.awk: block extraction

usage: block.awk name=NAME FILENAME

Print out a named block. A named block is a block between #+block NAME and #+endblock.

fence.sh: wrap your code block in triple-backtick (or GitHub Markdown) style

usage: fence.sh LANG CODEBLOCK

Wrap CODEBLOCK with triple-backtick syntax. It is designed to be a helper for generating markdown documentation in collaborate with uncomment.awk.

highlight.sh: wrap your code block in Jekyll style

usage: highlight.sh LANG CODEBLOCK

Wrap CODEBLOCK with {% highlight LANG %} and {% endhighlight %}. It is designed to be a helper for generating markdown documentation in collaborate with uncomment.awk.

ignore.awk: ignore blocks

usage: ignore.awk FILENAME

Like cat FILENAME but ignore blocks between #+ignore and #+endignore, and lines containing #+ignoreline.

sh.awk: simple shell-base templating

usage: sh.awk [shell="/bin/sh"] FILENAME

Pipe commands after the mark #+sh to SHELL, and replace each mark and command with its output.

$ cat today
Today is #+sh date +%Y-%m-%d

$ sh.awk today
Today is 2021-08-02

trim.awk: trim blank lines

usage: trim.awk FILENAME

Trim blank lines in FILENAME

uncomment.awk: uncomment source code

usage: uncomment.awk [codeout] [comment="//"] FILENAME

Uncomment FILENAME by simply removing the leading comment starter in each comment line, and pipe code blocks (the non-comment lines) to the command specified by codeout.

You need to specify another comment starter when your source code is not commented by //.

Development

Some principles:

• follow KISS
• utilize common UNIX tools such as awk, sed, sh
• not exceed 128 LoC for each little program

LoC of each program:

        fence.sh 23
    highlight.sh 27
        trim.awk 28
      ignore.awk 34
       block.awk 39
          sh.awk 50
         src.awk 76
   uncomment.awk 77
           total 354

Run tests:

sh run_test.sh

License

See LICENSE.