Editing Live coding (section)

{{Short description|Integration of programming as part of running program}}
{{Distinguish | Interactive programming}}
[[File:Study in keith.ogv|thumb|200px|alt=Example live coding performance|''A Study in Keith'' is a musical live coding performance in [[Impromptu (programming environment)|Impromptu]] by Andrew Sorensen.]]

'''Live coding''',<ref>Collins, N., McLean, A., Rohrhuber, J. & Ward, A. (2003), "[http://akustik.hfbk.net/publications/LiveCodingInLaptopPerformance.pdf Live Coding in Laptop Performance]", ''Organised Sound'' 8(3): 321–30. {{doi|10.1017/S135577180300030X}}</ref> sometimes referred to as '''on-the-fly programming''',<ref name="auto">Wang G. & Cook P. (2004) [http://soundlab.cs.princeton.edu/publications/on-the-fly_nime2004.pdf "On-the-fly Programming: Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument"], In ''Proceedings of the 2004 International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME)'' (New York: NIME, 2004).</ref> '''just in time programming''' and '''conversational programming''', makes programming an integral part of the running program.<ref>Alan Blackwell, Alex McLean, James Noble, Jochen Otto, and Julian Rohrhuber, "Collaboration and learning through live coding (Dagstuhl Seminar 13382)", Dagstuhl Reports 3 (2014), no. 9, 130–168.</ref>

It is most prominent as a [[performing arts]] form and a [[creativity technique]] centred upon the writing of [[source code]] and the use of [[interactive programming]] in an [[improvisation|improvised]] way. Live coding is often used to create sound and image based [[digital media]], as well as light systems, improvised [[dance]] and poetry,<ref>Magnusson, T. (2013). [https://liveprogramming.github.io/2013/papers/thor.pdf The Threnoscope. A Musical Work for Live Coding Performance]. In Live 2013. First International Workshop on Live Programming.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8221235.stm|title= Tech Know: Programming, meet music |publisher=BBC News|accessdate=2010-03-25 | date=2009-08-28}}</ref> though is particularly prevalent in [[computer music]] usually as improvisation, although it could be combined with [[algorithmic composition]].<ref>Collins, N. (2003) "[https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/download/attachments/74258672/Collins,+Generative+Music.pdf Generative Music and Laptop Performance] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514102233/https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/download/attachments/74258672/Collins,+Generative+Music.pdf |date=2014-05-14 }}", ''Contemporary Music Review'' 22(4):67–79.</ref> Typically, the process of writing source code is made visible by projecting the computer screen in the audience space, with ways of visualising the code an area of active research.<ref>McLean, A., Griffiths, D., Collins, N., and Wiggins, G. (2010). [http://yaxu.org/visualisation-of-live-code/ Visualisation of live code]. In Electronic Visualisation and the Arts London 2010.</ref> Live coding techniques are also employed outside of performance, such as in producing sound for film<ref>{{cite book|last=Rohrhuber|first=Julian|title=Artificial, Natural, Historical in Transdisciplinary Digital Art. Sound, Vision and the New Screen|year=2008|publisher=Springer Berlin Heidelberg|pages=60–70|url=http://akustik.hfbk.net/publications/rohrhuber_artificial_natural_historical.pdf}}</ref> or audiovisual work for interactive art installations.<ref>{{cite web|title=Communion by Universal Everything and Field.io: interview|date=24 May 2011 |url=http://www.creativeapplications.net/scripts/communion-cinder-scripts-events-special/|accessdate=5 February 2013}}</ref> Also, the interconnection between computers makes possible to realize this practice networked in group.

The figure of '''live coder''' is who performs the act of live coding, usually "artists who want to learn to code, and coders who want to express themselves"<ref>{{cite web|last=Bell|first=Sarah|title=Live coding brings programming to life - an interview with Alex McLean|work=British Science Association |url=http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/blog/live-coding-brings-programming-to-life-an-interview-with-alex-mac|accessdate=2 March 2016}}</ref> or in terms of Wang & Cook the "programmer/performer/composer".<ref name="auto"/>

Live coding is also an increasingly popular technique in programming-related lectures and conference presentations, and has been described as a "best practice" for computer science lectures by [[Mark Guzdial]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Guzdial|first=Mark|title=What students get wrong when building computational physics models in Python: Cabellero thesis part 2|url=http://computinged.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/what-students-get-wrong-when-building-computational-physics-models-in-python-cabellero-thesis-part-2/|accessdate=5 February 2013|date=August 2011}}</ref>