In computer programming, event-driven programming (EDP) or event-based programming is a programming paradigm in which the flow of the program is determined by events—e.g., sensor outputs or user actions (mouse clicks, key presses) or messages from other programs or threads.
Event-driven programming can also be defined as an application architecture technique in which the application has a main loop which is clearly divided down to two sections:
- the first is event selection (or event detection)
- the second is event handling.
In embedded systems the same may be achieved using interrupts instead of a constantly running main loop; in that case the former portion of the architecture resides completely in computer hardware.
Event-driven programs can be written in any language, although the task is easier in languages that provide high-level abstractions, such as closures. Some integrated development environments, such as Microsoft Visual Studio, provide code generation assistants that automate the most repetitive tasks required for event handling.
Read more about Event-driven Programming: Criticism and Best Practice, Stackless Threading
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