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Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

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Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#31

Post by muzani »

sdevonoes wrote: post #9

That's easy: Python, Java, C++, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, SQL, Postgres, MySQL,... A better question would be: what software technologies will not be around 20 years from now? My bet: Babel, npm, Vue.js, React, Angular, Zend, most of the SaaS/IaaS we know and use, Kubernetes, Visual Studio Code, ...

I'd actually bet against Java and C++.

C++ is no longer taught in CS degrees where I live, and not offered for jobs. At this point, it doesn't really do anything much better than other options.

Java is being replaced by Kotlin officially in Android docs. But the big thing is that people are actively converting Java code to Kotlin, which you don't see being done with PHP, MySQL, COBOL and so on. And the resurgence of functional programming benefits Kotlin over Java.

They might still be around in legacy systems, but maybe not in the front line manner that JS and Python will be.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#32

Post by olmideso »

I think every technology that's widely used today that requires some backward compatibility is here to stay for a long time. Things like API/protocols are hard to move from.

As for new technologies I would expect them to appear and take the niches where current technologies are not good enough. Take C++ vs Rust for example: the former is quite bad in terms of security and the latter is good at that. So Rust will become more popular in writing security critical applications and web services. But C++ seems to be good enough for things like high performance/scientific computing so it will be still widely used there.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#33

Post by EliRivers »

muzani wrote: post #31
sdevonoes wrote: post #9

That's easy: Python, Java, C++, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, PHP, SQL, Postgres, MySQL,... A better question would be: what software technologies will not be around 20 years from now? My bet: Babel, npm, Vue.js, React, Angular, Zend, most of the SaaS/IaaS we know and use, Kubernetes, Visual Studio Code, ...

I'd actually bet against Java and C++. C++ is no longer taught in CS degrees where I live, and not offered for jobs. At this point, it doesn't really do anything much better than other options. Java is being replaced by Kotlin officially in Android docs. But the big thing is that people are actively converting Java code to Kotlin, which you don't see being done with PHP, MySQL, COBOL and so on. And the resurgence of…

In my experience, when chosen, C++ is not chosen because it's in CS degrees. Accordingly, it not being in CS degrees shouldn't be an impediment.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#34

Post by stakkur »

Unix. Linux. Python. Emacs. Vim. Databases. SQL. Bash.

Now for the losers:

Web browsers will be gone. Windows will be gone. JavaScript will be either a painful legacy language or have been transformed into something entirely different. JS frameworks will be an anachronism that old programmers chuckle over while drinking beers.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#35

Post by olmideso »

stakkur wrote: post #34

Unix. Linux. Python. Emacs. Vim. Databases. SQL. Bash. Now for the losers: Web browsers will be gone. Windows will be gone. JavaScript will be either a painful legacy language or have been transformed into something entirely different. JS frameworks will be an anachronism that old programmers chuckle over while drinking beers.

I think it's unlikely that everything you mentioned will be gone: Web browsers - right now there is a trend towards unification and open source because the software is just to complex to build and maintain for most companies and I expect this will continue in the future. So we will have either same browsers(i.e. Chromium, Firefox) or some derivatives/forks.

Windows - this one definitely not going anywhere, there is just too much software built for it. Windows 7 which was last updated 6 years ago is still widely used. So there are no premises that Windows 10 or its successors is any different.

JavaScript - while currenty popular frameworks are quite likely to disappear and their best practices and functionality incorporated into the language, the core language is unlikely to go anywhere. Even things like WebAssembly are developed as a complementary part to JS, not as a replacement. Maybe we will see a wider adoption of things like Typescript, but JS still will be underneath them.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#36

Post by muzani »

frompdx wrote: post #18

All of these are just guesses. Niche stuff: - Lisp, in some form or another will continue to exist. - Forth will continue to exist because it is possible for a single person to revive it. Common stuff: - vi/vim will live on. I will stop typing if it doesn't. - JavaScript is probably here to stay. - Java seems like a safe bet for longevity. - Spreadsheets. Maybe not Excel, but spreadsheets will live on.

5 years ago I would have bet on Lisp being replaced by JS. JS has a lot of advanced features, especially for functional programming, but nobody really uses it that way in production or teaches it that way.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#37

Post by muzani »

stakkur wrote: post #34

Unix. Linux. Python. Emacs. Vim. Databases. SQL. Bash. Now for the losers: Web browsers will be gone. Windows will be gone. JavaScript will be either a painful legacy language or have been transformed into something entirely different. JS frameworks will be an anachronism that old programmers chuckle over while drinking beers.

Web browsers are a lot to bet against. I'd be more likely to bet that web browsers become the operating system.

Re: Ask HN: What software technologies will still be around 20 years from now?

#38

Post by gitgud »

stakkur wrote: post #34

Unix. Linux. Python. Emacs. Vim. Databases. SQL. Bash. Now for the losers: Web browsers will be gone. Windows will be gone. JavaScript will be either a painful legacy language or have been transformed into something entirely different. JS frameworks will be an anachronism that old programmers chuckle over while drinking beers.

More of a wish list than trends observed... What will replace browsers?
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