I've done a bit of the same with Emacs via Org-mode and Babel, and I want to do more! Literate programming (and even literate DevOps!) is great.

If it's picking up these days, I think that's wonderful. But the idea is indeed from 1984 (via Knuth)! So in that way, the resurgence of literate programming is the result of mining the ancient computing past for great ideas we've not yet done enough justice as an industry/practice/science. :)

> I wouldn't say embedding graphical content is a return to the 80s, but more like making a new mashup taking the best of the old (command line interface= minimalist yet powerful) and the recent (graphics= high information density) to go beyond the limitations of each.

I wrote what I wrote without any real pessimism. I think there's a lot that's still great about old technology, like Unix or Lisp.

In terms of really 'escaping from the 80s' I had something narrower in mind, like the actual implementation details of retaining compatibility with old terminals and implementing new features via escape sequences and stuff like that. I think some day more of a clean slate could be more flexible or easier to hack on. (Which is, for me, just a hunch— I've never worked on a terminal emulator myself.) But even then, I think that 'escape' would still be as much about doing justice to old ideas as being able to let go of old implementation details.