Subj : Re: Are programmers like this in the real world?
To   : comp.programming
From : gswork
Date : Wed Jul 27 2005 06:50 am



Charles Richmond wrote:
> davebsr wrote:
> >
> > Charles Richmond wrote:
> > > Scott Moore wrote:
> >
> > [snip some history of CS]
> >
> > > > We succeeded. Now there is much better productivity and less need for
> > > > top level experts to do mundane programming work. If you say "any idiot
> > > > can program", it's because we made it possible.
> > > >
> > > > Yea us. Thanks for the complement.
> > > >
> > > And what do you think that your reward will be for making yourself
> > > obsolete??? Do you think the organization is going to keep you on
> > > salary as a "programmer emeritus"??? Sounds to me like you just
> > > worked yourself out of a job.
> > >
> >
> > I think it's ironic that you seem to disparage someone for working
> > himself out of a job, yet your sig clearly says, "It is moral cowardice
> > to leave undone what one perceives right to do."
> >
> > I think it's our job as programmers to make using a computer easier for
> > our users. Some of our users are programmers, so part of programming
> > means making programming easier to do.
> >
> My belief is that things become easier and easier, until once they are
> *so* easy, they are *not* worth doing anymore. At that point, there will
> be *no* programming jobs whatever.

what happens as technology becomes more advance, 'mature' as they say,
is that the part exposed to the majority of users grows further and
further away from the foundations.    There are still poeple designing
digital circuitry and programming arcane assembly - they were once all
you saw, then for programming there were high level languages, then as
the power increased and costs decreased, development could be
continually shifted along then chain - so that these days someone with
MS Excel can use standard functions to create what once would have
required a team of systems experts.

There are plenty of programmers, perhaps you are too far 'downriver' to
feel appreciated now, a position i can sympathise somewhat with.

> >
> > Now, just because it's easier to make a program print a line or display
> > a dialog box does not make the hard parts of programming easier. There
> > are things about programming that will not be solved by better
> > compilers or tools. Things that will require something other than
> > better programs to become easy.
> >
> Because computers are such common objects these days, I believe that
> the worth of the work of programmers has been devalued.

Application programmers without deep skills in their specialisms, yes

> ISTM that it's
> *not* really easier to program today, but the general opinion is that
> programming has become very easy. I am willing to be proven wrong also.

As an example of a small app - build a typical accounting analysis tool
in a spreadsheet with a scripting language or some app building dev
tool like Delphi, then build one with an 8 bit chip computer with 1kb
ram using opcodes with 60's i/o equipment.  then consider the very
different levels of skill neede to accomplish each.

.