Interactive C is a program which uses a modified version of ANSI C

ANSI C

ANSI C refers to the family of successive standards published by the American National Standards Institute for the C programming language. Software developers writing in C are encouraged to conform to the standards, as doing so aids portability between compilers.-History and outlook:The first...

 with several libraries and features that allow hobbyists to program small robotics platforms.
Newton Research Labs developed Interactive C as a compiling environment for robots using the Motorola 6811

Freescale 68HC11

The 68HC11 is an 8-bit microcontroller family introduced by Motorola in 1985. Now produced by Freescale Semiconductor, it descended from the Motorola 6800 microprocessor. It is a CISC microcontroller...

 processor. The MIT LEGO Robot Design Contest (6.270) was the original purpose for the software. It became popular, however, due to its ability to compile on the fly

On the fly

-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...

 rather than taking time to compile beforehand as other languages had done.