robert young
Posts: 361
Nickname: funbunny
Registered: Sep, 2003
|
|
Re: Scala is for good programmers
|
Posted: Oct 7, 2010 8:31 AM
|
|
> Maybe I misunderstand you (we seem to be talking about > different things altogether) but I find the notion that > the more we become dependent on computers, the less we > will need computer experts. More specifically, it seems > weird to me that so many people think that the more > software becomes an essential part of almost all aspects > of our lives, the less we will need programmers.
But that has been just the arc of history. In the 1950's, one need be an EE to "program" these machines. Then came assemblers, and FlowMatic, and AutoCoder, and then FORTRAN and COBOL. The came minis. Then the PC.
Then, the application which turned the PC into a toaster (my term for generic appliance with a cpu): Lotus 1-2-3. PC's were no longer used as IBM had designed them; to be "programmed" by a sophisticated engineer who knew programming languages. M$ was initially the source of systems programming tools for the PC. It had a primitive spreadsheet program (MultiPlan, which went nowhere), and not much else. The compilers came with full documentation, in bespoke mini-binders (3 D-ring), and M$ sent you update pages (every month, IIRC). Borland was the major competitor in systems tools, and there was competition. Once Borland died, and Apple contracted for Office Suite (yes, Office was built for Apple to their spec, only later ported back to Win/X86), M$ became less and less concerned with programmers. One might say the same of Apple in the last half decade.
Fewer and fewer user-level applications are written to a *compiler*; most are written to some kind of *framework*. (I'd wager that a vanishingly small percent of C/C++ coders write without vast libraries embedded in their applications.) Said frameworks are the products of discrete small handfuls of coders, while used to create applications by legions of framework coders. To some degree, the Ryan-McFarlands of yesteryear have been replaced by framework builders. Real Coders are disappearing, being replaced by framework manipulators.
|
|