Here's a word I see often on StackOverflow, "programatically."
Used to indicate that a programmer intends to do something within the code of a program, rather than through user interaction.
For example, "a user can check a checkbox on a form, but a programmer may also do it programatically."
Since this word isn't in the dictionary, I assume it to be either incorrect to use it at all, or this is a new word that's essentially slang.
Is there a better alternative?
"Programatic" is a misspelling of "programmatic", which is in the dictionary. Your understanding of the technical usage is correct, and is slightly different than the common, dictionary definition.
I think the only reasonable alternative would be "automatically", since the programmer is automating the process, but this use is clearly inferior (at least to this programmer's ears) to "programmatically".
If we restrict ourselves to circumlocutions to avoid constructing useful and sensible words, then communication may well be impaired. In the case of "programmatically", I wouldn't even say that one has coined a new word. To anyone who understands the concept of using program code to achieve a particular result, the words "programmatic" and "programmatically" seem to me to be rather obvious constructions.
As a programmer, I have great respect for official documentation. In this case, however, I would say that the official documentation is incomplete, out of date, or has been misinterpreted.
The NOAD lists programmatic, and it reports it means of the nature of or according to a program, schedule, or method; one of the derivates reported by the dictionary is programmatically.
As alternative of programmatically, I can think of by (using a) script , by code, or by scripting.
It's "programmatically", not “programatically”. However, because many built-in word processor and web form dictionaries don't recognize the word, your misspelling is relatively common in the IT world.
As a Software Developer, I frequently use the word "programmatically" at work, both verbally and in writing. I consider it to be just as valid as "grammatically", but instead of meaning "using proper grammar", I mean to convey "using the proper programming syntax".
It does annoy me that the auto-correct of many dictionaries do not consider it to be a word. I ignore the warning, and if I am properly motivated, I take the time to add the word to the internal dictionary file that the program checks against.
To the original question in the post, I think there is a better alternative, which is to restructure the sentence to something like "...a programmer may also do it in code." This is the usage I hear and read commonly; it's often used to distinguish between coding a system for some objective, or configuring the same system to accomplish that objective.
Programmatic was coined as "according to a programme, but meaning bureaucratic, political,or administrative programme, not "a piece of code".
While discussing software programming, "programmatically" feels wrong, and to me it sounds at least redundant, like on a team of surgeons saying "how to perform a coronary by-pass medically?" or someone within a group of musicians asking "how to play Beethoven, musically?"
If we're talking about software we already are speaking about doing things with programs. One could ask "is there an API to do XYZ?" Or "how to do xyz from my code?"
I grew up reading USA programming magazines throughout the 1980s and 1990s and I dare anyone find me one occurrence of the word "programmatically" in Byte Magazine, for instance...
It wouldnt surprise me at all if the rise of usage of the word "programmatically" in software matches the years where software development started being outsourced to cheap India or China software factories.
FC
PS:Ironically, nowadays MSFT Technet is full of this word that still rubs me the wrong way when applied to software
