What does it mean to do/determine something "programmatically"? [closed]

Question

Doing something programatically generally means that you can do it using source code, rather than via direct user interaction or a macro.

For example, consider the problem of resizing columns to fit in Excel.

You could do it manually by double clicking between the columns, but that requires user interaction.

You could use the excel macro recorder, but that is fairly complicated.

Or, you could use VBA to write code that would do it.

I doubt it's actually in the dictionary.

Programmatically is a real word. From another random dictionary: Compact OED online.

In .NET, "programmatically" generally means doing something in code rather than in a template, markup, configuration, or xml.

For instance, in an ASP.NET page you can add a textbox in the ASPX markup:

<asp:TextBox runat="server" />

Or you can add the control programmatically in the ASPX.cs codebehind:

this.Controls.Add(new TextBox());

Similarly, you can change configuration manually by editing the xml in the App.config file, or you can write code that will modify the configuration programmatically.

Some more urls for definition:

http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/PROGRAMMATICALLY

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/programmatically

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/programmatically

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/programmatically

http://dictionary.zdnet.com/definition/programmatically.html [INACTIVE]

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/programmatically

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=programmatically&i=49823,00.asp

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/programmatically