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Interactive programming is the procedure of writing parts of a program while it is already active.[1] This focuses on the program text as the maininterface for a running process, rather than aninteractive application, where the program is designed indevelopment cycles and used thereafter (usually by a so-called "user", in distinction to the "developer"). Consequently, here,the activity of writing a program becomes part of the program itself.[citation needed]
It thus forms a specific instance ofinteractive computation as an extreme opposite tobatch processing, where neither writing the program nor its use happens in an interactive way. The principle ofrapid feedback inextreme programming is radicalized and becomes more explicit.
It is also known as on-the-fly-programming, just in time programming, or conversational programming.[citation needed]
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Interactive programming techniques are especially useful in cases where no clear specification of the problem that is to be solved can be given in advance. In such situations (which are not unusual in research), the formal language provides the necessary environment for the development of an appropriate question or problem formulation.
Interactive programming has also been used in applications that need to be rewritten without stopping them, a feature which the computer languageSmalltalk is famous for. Generally,dynamic programming languages provide the environment for such an interaction, so that typicallyprototyping anditerative and incremental development is done while other parts of the program are running.
As this feature is an apparent need in sound design and algorithmic composition, it has evolved significantly there. More recently,[when?] researchers have been using this method to developsonification algorithms.
Using dynamic programming languages for sound and graphics, interactive programming is also used as an improvisational performance stylelive coding, mainly in algorithmic music and video.
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§ 5.4, Overview of the Programming Process. Programming in theSmalltalk-80 system involves [specifying] class descriptions, creating instances of classes, and sequencing messages to the instances. In the course of using the system, you interact with various views that give you access to the classes in the system, messages, methods [...], expressions [...], and intermediate execution states. The programming environment supports describing classes in an incremental fashion. The "class editor" is presented in the form of abrowser, which is a way to present a hierarchical index to classes and to messages.
