Designing for interaction
Scott Sanderson explores how interactivity can and should influence the design of software libraries, details how the needs of interactive users differ from the needs of application developers, and shares techniques for improving the usability of libraries in interactive environments without sacrificing robustness in noninteractive environments.
| Talk Title | Designing for interaction |
| Speakers | Scott Sanderson (Quantopian) |
| Conference | JupyterCon in New York 2018 |
| Conf Tag | The Official Jupyter Conference |
| Location | New York, New York |
| Date | August 22-24, 2018 |
| URL | Talk Page |
| Slides | Talk Slides |
| Video | |
One of the defining features of Python is its flexibility: it can be used interactively, and it can also be used as the principal development language for large standalone applications. While this flexibility is a major reason for Python’s popularity, it also presents a unique challenge for library authors, because the wants and needs of interactive users often conflict with the wants and needs of application developers. Scott Sanderson explores how interactivity can and should influence the design of software libraries, details how the needs of interactive users differ from the needs of application developers, and shares techniques for improving the usability of libraries in interactive environments without sacrificing robustness in noninteractive environments. Scott uses Python in his examples, but the general principles are applicable to any programming language that supports both interactive use and standalone application development. Topics include:
