Rapid Prototyping in Interactive Programming Environments

This is a position statement written by Don Hopkins in September 1988 for Robin Schaufler's proposed CHI panel called "Rapid Prototyping in Interactive Programming Environments". The panel unfortunately never took place, but the statements still apply. The comments about programming in NeWS also apply to ScriptX, and other languages.

Panel Topic

Two general schools of thought exist on the subject of rapid prototyping. One school of thought advocates the use of graphical tools; the other advocates the use of interactive language environments. This panel focusses on the latter school of thought. The panelists attempt to characterise the benefits and drawbacks of interpretive language environments for rapid prototyping in general, and examine the relative benefits and drawbacks of the specific languages they represent.

Some pertinent questions to be addressed are: