Programming in an Interactive Environment: the ``Lisp'' Experience

Abstract

Lisp systems have been used for highly interactive programming for more than a decade During that time, special properties of the Lisp language (such as program/ data equivalence) have enabled a certain style of interactive programming to develop, characterized by powerful interactive support for the programmer, nonstandard program structures, and nonstandard program development methods. The paper summarazes the LISP style of interactive programming for readers outside the LisP community, describes those propertms of LisP systems that were essential for the development of this style, and discusses some current and not yet resolved issues