Live coding exists on a spectrum from fully improvised to largely pre-composed, and performers position themselves on it

Alex McLean distinguishes pure improvisatory live coding (starting from a blank screen, not knowing what will come next) from performances where coders bring prepared material or near-finished tracks they ‘work with live.’ Both are legitimate, but they produce different aesthetics and different audience relationships. McLean favors the improvisatory end: he values being surprised by the code’s output and finding patterns to respond to. The tension between ‘improvised from scratch’ and ‘pre-prepared’ is a recurring debate in the live-coding scene.

Examples

McLean: in a 2-hour performance he may prepare some material. His collaborator Lucy from Epiploki writes a few functions she wants to focus on in a notebook before a set — no more — so she retains room for discovery within a constrained vocabulary.

Assessment

Place three live-coding practices on the improv-to-composed spectrum: (1) a coder who starts from a blank editor at every show; (2) a coder who loads a 32-bar pre-programmed structure and edits it live; (3) a coder who writes down four functions to focus on but generates all patterns during the show. Justify each placement.