Factor/Interactive development

Factor has good support for Interactive development.

• Code can be loaded into a listener session
• Code can be reloaded: http://docs.factorcode.org/content/article-vocabs.refresh.html
• Tuple classes can be redefined, which updates instances: http://docs.factorcode.org/content/article-tuple-redefinition.html

A typical workflow with Factor involves an editor running concurrently with the UI.

After making changes to a source file in the editor, you switch to the UI listener, and press F2, which runs the refresh-all word. This word reloads changed source files, at which point the changes can be tested interactively in the listener, or by running unit tests. Since user code runs in the same Factor instance as the development environment, you can also use the inspector and other tools to view and modify application state. The listener instance can remain running for a long time, with many such edit-reload cycles taking place in a single listener session.

Factor can also be used in a more conventional, scripting-language-like manner. If Factor is given a source file name on the command line, it will run the source file instead of starting the UI environment:

• http://docs.factorcode.org/content/article-cli.html

Finally, stand-alone applications can be deployed, without including the interactive environment.

• Deployment