3 ms·

If he uses a REPL, it is no longer batch programming. The plain edit/compile/run cycle is best left to other languages.

• kazinator 10y ago
  Ok, so the definition of batch programming means that debugging is only allowed by print statements (or other side effects from which we infer what happened in an actual run of the program and work backwards). For instance, using a breakpoint debugger on C isn't batch. Still, Lisp is good for that. I've debugged Lisp programs with print statements and it was at least as good an experience as debugging programs in other languages using print statements. For instance, if we compare to C, C has no trace, and generally no easy way to wrap any function with a wrapper that takes the arguments. Ecosystems built around C, like the Linux kernel, have developed things like that: Linux has a function tracing thing in it (more than one, I think).