Open Source Programming for Interpreted Language: Graphic Interface and Macro Bridging Interface in the EEGLAB Software

Interpreted languages like Matlab or Python are popular in the Open Source community. Not-only do these software environments offer the possibility of developing comprehensive graphic interfaces but they also contain nearly unlimited scripting capabilities for automating procedures. We describe the GIMBI framework (Graphic Interface and Macro Bridging Interface) for easily bridging graphic interface functions with automated macro scripting in an interpreted language. We illustrate this method using the open source EEGLAB software we have developed, which is currently the most widely used public software for processing electrophysiological data.