Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 years?

Posted by 1_player on Thursday November 19, 2020 @11:45PM
from the ask-hn dept.

C is almost 50 years old and will probably be around for a long time, and the default choice for many fields of software engineering for a while. Some hope for AI to become smart enough to make our work obsolete, or even just code editors that can do most of the work for us, though we're still somewhat away from that.

So, in some way software engineering moves at breakneck speed (The Web) but at snail pace elsewhere (embedded development).

What do you think programming will be like in 50 years then? What is the equivalent of flying cars people thought would be commonplace in our modern age, and what's something nobody would ever see coming but will be the real paradigm shift?

( 11 comments | 9 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by logicslave on Friday November 20, 2020 @01:58AM (#25157932)

It will mostly be config files

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by wdroz on Friday November 20, 2020 @03:35AM (#25158474)

I sadly agree, the era of YAML engineers has already begun.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by potta_coffee on Friday November 20, 2020 @11:42AM (#25162121)

We have a joke in the office about Markdown developers.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by jamil7 on Friday November 20, 2020 @01:12PM (#25163144)

We'll write it all in serverless Scratch

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by eucryphia on Friday November 20, 2020 @02:39AM (#25158136)

I'd like to see the new technology like the Apple Neural Engine hardware develop to implement Coherent Extrapolated Volition, like in the movie Her.

But it won't make the characters in your PC games swear at you, it will be used to make human workers more productive. A bit like google glasses false start at a consumer device, but taken up by plant maintenance workers.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by severine on Friday November 20, 2020 @11:06AM (#25161706)

A bit like google glasses false start at a consumer device, but taken up by plant maintenance workers.

Is this a thing or is it mostly anecdotic? (honest question)

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by open-source-ux on Friday November 20, 2020 @04:08AM (#25158688)

Probably still plain text and clumsy, cryptic syntax based on the limited characters available on a keyboard. In other words, the default preference of most developers for the past 50 years.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by wolco2 on Friday November 20, 2020 @01:16AM (#25157760)

I think we will still see COBOL but less so. PHP will still be around. Java. React and something will merge.

The majority might be just ai training.

Or dna programming where even kids are involved creating their own pets.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by usgroup on Friday November 20, 2020 @07:46AM (#25159918)

I think we are in the medieval ages v2.0. I think a larger historical arc will reveal that. So in 50 years nothing much will change; mostly better mouse traps!

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by blodkorv on Saturday November 21, 2020 @07:02PM (#25173673)

Programmers will be much cheaper.

Making most business software will be as easy as installing Wordpress with plugins today.

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Re:Ask HN: What do you think programming will be like in 50 ... by multinational on Friday November 20, 2020 @04:25AM (#25158775)

1970 programming languages are obsolete now. In 50 years today's languages will be obsolete, but unix and C will still be around.

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