Introduction

sphinx_literate is an extension inspired by the concept of Literate Programming.

It provides a directive called lit, which is close to Sphinx’ native code block directive, except that the author can specify how these literate code blocks should be assembled together in order to produce the full code that is presented in the documentation.

This literate code block provides 2 complementary features:

1. The documentation’s source code can be transformed into a fully working code. This is traditionally called the tangled code.

2. The documentation can display links that help navigating through the code even though the documentation presents it non-linearly.

Simple example

Source

Let’s take a very simple example. The following snippet in the documentation’s source defines a first lit block:

```{lit} Base skeleton
#include <iostream>
int main(int, char**) {
    {{Main content}}
}
```

Note

I am using MyST syntax instead of Sphinx’ default ReST.

There are two key differences with a usual code block:

1. A lit block always has a name, e.g., “Base skeleton”.

2. The content of a lit block can contain references like in this case {{Main content}}, which points to the block whose name is “Main content”, whenever this will be defined.

Important

There is no need for the referenced block “Main content” to be already defined. The natural order in which things are introduced in a literate program is often not the same as the order in which a program is written.

Note

A block name can include spaces, but it must not include comma , nor parentheses (.

And we can later define the main content, in another lit block.

```{lit} C++, Main content
std::cout << "Hello world" << std::endl;
```

One addition here is the language for syntax highlight: C++ is specified before the name, separated from the block name by a comma. This is optional.

HTML Result

When building the HTML documentation as usual with make html, this block is compiled into the following:

#include <iostream>
int main(int, char**) {
    {{Main content}}
}

std::cout << "Hello world" << std::endl;

You can see that the reference to Main content in the first block is replaced by a navigation link that references the second block.

Depending on the “literate options” that you set, you may see each block’s name in its lower-right corner, as well as links to where it is referenced and modified.

The literate options, located in the right-hand panel.

Note

The literate options buttons have only been tested with the Furo Sphinx theme, this may require some adaptation for other themes.

Tangled Result

This extension adds a new builder, called tangling. You can call it with:

make tangle

This will create in _build/tangle a hierarchy of files from the content of the documentation. This only looks at blocks whose name starts with “file:” to create files. Let us then add an extra lit block:

```{lit} C++, file:main.cpp
{{Base skeleton}}
```

{{Base skeleton}}

When tangling, you can see a file main.cpp in the tangle directory. It is also possible to display the tangled result directly in the documentation using the tangle directive:

```{tangle} Base skeleton
```

Tangled block 'Base skeleton' [from here]

#include <iostream>
int main(int, char**) {
    std::cout << "Hello world" << std::endl;
}