What is a noweb back-end?

A noweb back-end is the final stage in a noweb pipeline.

What does it do?

The AsciiDoc back-end converts a noweb document from pipeline format to AsciiDoc format.

It inserts AsciiDoc wrappers around text sections, makes sure code sections are appropriately formatted, and translates hyperlinks from pipeline to AsciiDoc.

What language is it written into?

It is written in Python 3.0

A noweb stage (filters, wrappers, back-ends) can be written in any language.

In the original noweb 2.x, those stages are written in Icon.

Icon is a great language for text manipulation, but suffers from two problems:

1. It is not mainstream, which means it is harder to find developers to contribute to the project.
2. It is, as far as I am aware, a dead language.

What version of AsciiDoc does this back-end use?

This back-end will generate AsciiDoc 8.x output.

What about the rest of the system? Do I still need to install Icon?

Yes, until someone (me?) takes on the challenge of translating the code from Icon into Python.

As part of this project, I will also produce two SlackBuilds packages to enable users to install noweb and Icon on their Slackware system.