The sad fact is that, at the moment, these literate programs/documents are typed in as just plain files and manipulated as such. They are only processed into LaTeX/Info documents after the fact (and only occasionally).
Para mode is a GNU emacs mode that (roughly...) lets you both edit Texinfo files and jump around in them like Info files, based on the node structure. Either edit-as-normal or navigate-as-Info.
I think there are possibilities for doing the same thing with these literate documents/programs. Then you'd get the benefits of navigation, following indexery, etc., as you create the files.
One major problem (?): the literate sectioning makes it quite easy to
navigate within a file, but, for it to be worth it, you'd like
the "literate Para mode" (in navigation mode) to be able to carry
you to the right place when you, e.g., want to go "up" from the
first
Implementation: my first cut would be: run something over all the literate files in a program to collect "Para-useful" information; save this somewhere -- this is the moral equivalent of a TAGS file. Then the navigation commands, etc., would use the pseudo-TAGS info to do their thing. Because the info would get out of date as you hack on your program, you'd re-make the pseudo-TAGS stuff whenever you stepped out for coffee, lunch, or sleep.