On Thu, Mar 06, 2003 at 12:48:07AM -0800, Mark Rafn wrote: > > I am only talking about the instance of a web app which, though it > > exists as a series of discrete scripts that communicate with the user > > through a stateless HTTP connection, presents a unified "interactive > > session". > Sure, but why limit it to web apps? Almost all apps communicate with the > user in some manner. How is delivering a blob of HTML to a renderer in > response to a query any different from delivering a blob of text to a > logfile watcher in response to a syslog() call? Or delivering email to a > user by writing some files in response to a cron invocation? interactive <programming> A term describing a program whose input and output are interleaved, like a conversation, allowing the user's input to depend on earlier output from the same run. The interaction with the user is usually conducted through either a text-based interface or a {graphical user interface}. Other kinds of interface, e.g. using {speech recognition} and/or {speech synthesis}, are also possible. I am not interacting with syslogd when it writes to a log file. I am not interacting with cron when it sends me email. These examples lack the critical feature of *interleaving*. However, I do interact with a website. -- Steve Langasek postmodern programmer
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