In a non-interactive language, you need to create a "harness" (aka, a program) to run your lower level functions (here I mean in the "top-down" sense of functions at the bottom of the call tree) independently. A test framework could accomplish this, and so you'll see people who do a more TDD-inspired approach will have an easier time conceiving of how to develop their program from the bottom-up. If you don't have a test framework or other framework assisting you then you end up writing "throwaway" programs (I often don't throw these away, they become utility programs when I'm done, though more for diagnostics and testing than for end users). People see that as wasteful, so they don't do it even if it might speed things up for them because it gives them earlier validation of their design and requires less rewriting if they find their design is invalid.
Interactive systems like CL and Forth (as it's commonly implemented) give you that framework for free, it's already written. So why not take advantage of it?
lebuffon|2 years ago
Jtsummers|2 years ago
Interactive systems like CL and Forth (as it's commonly implemented) give you that framework for free, it's already written. So why not take advantage of it?