# ![Dreaming of integrated documentation](assets/icons8-ask-question-100.png) MkDocs semiliterate Plugin

This plugin for [MkDocs](http://mkdocs.org) is an extension of Allison Thackston's excellent [mkdocs-simple-plugin](https://athackst.github.io/mkdocs-simple-plugin). It allows you to include content from one file into another (via `{! ... !}` syntax), using exactly the same extraction specification that the `simple` plugin already uses for identifying documentation in source files.
<!-- repo: --><!-- site: The current version of mkdocs-semiliterate is {! setup.cfg { extract: {start: name}, terminate: '(\d*\.\d*\.\d*)', ensurelines: false} !}. -->

## Rationale

Time and trends have not validated Knuth's original vision of "literate programming" as a mainstream practice. Nevertheless, there remain significant advantages to incorporating all documentation, including user-guide-style narrative, into the source code for a project. These advantages include ease of maintenance and synchronization of code and documentation, and opportunities to make the ensemble of your code and documentation more DRY. Thus, it's worth using a "semiliterate" programming style, in which

* code is arranged as dictated by best software engineering practices
* documentation is co-located in the same files next to the implementing code
* and tools are provided for extracting and assembling that documentation into readable form.

*[DRY]: Don't Repeat Yourself -- a coding philosophy of creating a single authoritative location for each piece of information.

The `simple` plugin goes a long way toward creating a semiliterate programming environment. However, in creating narrative documentation, it's very useful to be able to quote or incorporate content --- whether that be documentation blocks or code examples or code that itself serves as documentation to avoid repeating information --- from one file into another. To satisfy that need, this `semiliterate` plugin extends (i.e, literally inherits from) the `simple` plugin and adds a syntax for such inclusion.

With a few other small ease-of-use tweaks (documented in the <!-- repo: -->[Usage](http://studioinfinity.org/semiliterate/mkdocs_semiliterate/plugin)<!-- site:[Usage](mkdocs_semiliterate/plugin.md) --> section),
this extended plugin aims to produce a lightweight but comprehensive semiliterate programming environment. <!-- repo: -->The [documentation site](http://studioinfinity.org/semiliterate)<!-- site:This documentation site --> is, of course, produced by MkDocs using the semiliterate plugin.

## Installation

The mkdocs-semiliterate package which provides the `semiliterate` plugin for MkDocs is available via PyPI:

`python3 -m pip install mkdocs-semiliterate`

or of course if your `pip` is already set up to use a Python 3.5 (or later) installation, just

`pip install mkdocs-semiliterate`

## License and Acknowledgments

This software is licensed under [Apache 2.0](LICENSE). [Icons8](https://icons8.com/icon/115368/ask-question) provided the icon.
