Codnar¶ ↑

Code Narrator - an inverse literate programming tool.

Code Narrator (Codnar) is an inverse literate programming tool. It splits the source files into “chunks” (including structured comments) and weaves them back into a narrative that describes the overall system.

A simple gem install codnar should do the trick, assuming you have Ruby gems set up. If you want to use the VIM-based syntax highlighting, you also need to install gvim. Similarly, you need to install GraphViz to be able to embed SVG diagrams in your HTML.

The basic usage is:

codnar-split [options] source-file > chunks-file
codnar-weave [options] chunks-files... > codnar.html

Both programs accept a -h or --help flag to print more detailed usage messages. You can also invoke Codnar from a Rakefile:

require "codnar/rake"

Codnar::Rake::SplitTask([ source-files... ], [ configurations... ])
Codnar::Rake::WeaveTask(root-file, [ configurations... ], output)