[bilalq]

I'd argue it's the same thing. When doing literate programming, I started by first writing a description of what I was going to do and why. Then I wrote the implementation. When I finished, I went back and updated the description to match what I'd done. Maybe I'd get the idea to improve the approach and repeat this for a few cycles.

But the specifics of the flow aside, it's the mindset difference that makes it all feel special. The docs are the primary artifact. The code is secondary.

In an era of Copilot-style inline suggestions, taking the time to write a lengthy description effectively feeds the prompt to get a better output.

[naruhodo]

I tend to write doc-comments before the functions they document, because it helps me think more clearly about what I want to happen - and sometimes causes me to entirely re-think my approach and abandon the function entirely.

I can definitely see such a practice improving LLM output.

Meanwhile, there are programmers that think comments are a "code smell".