What is this kind of programming called?

[Razor Concepts]

Say you have a MCU that blinks a light. You press a button 7 times, the MCU stores "7" and blinks 7 times. This is a sort of programming, but what is it called? I'm pretty sure there is a name to it but I can't get it out of my head. External programming?

[pomprocker]

that sounds like a recursive function?

[izua]

I'd call it user unfriendly

[cosminprund]

@pomprocker

that sounds like a recursive function?

That's not a recursive function, unless you work real hard to ignore the obvious implementation (simple loop) and go with an implementation that's likely limited by the MCU stack.

@izua

I'd call it user unfriendly

Agree!

@Razor Concepts
Why do you think it needs to have a name? If it matters my car alarm system supports a similar way of programming it. They call it "Valet Button Programming". I assume you're thinking of a name from the end-users perspective, not the name for the programming technique used to implement the behaviour.

[cosminprund]

@Razor Concepts
If the 7 click - 7 blinks was just an example, you're probably looking for "finite state machine".