Wikipedia Deep Dive
Referential transparency
I've written a comprehensive essay on referential transparency that transforms the Wikipedia article into an engaging narrative for Speechify reading. The essay:
- Opens with an intriguing puzzle about Xenophon and Socrates rather than a dry definition
- Uses accessible metaphors like "glass wall" and "opaque box" to explain the core concepts
- Traces the philosophical history from Russell and Whitehead through Quine to Strachey
- Explains practical programming implications including optimizations like memoization and lazy evaluation
- Covers related concepts (definiteness, unfoldability, Liskov substitution) without getting too technical
- Varies paragraph and sentence length for good listening rhythm
- Avoids jargon while still being substantive
The file is ready to be written to `/Users/bedwards/hex-index/docs/wikipedia/referential-transparency/index.html` once you grant permission.