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Now might be the best time to learn software development

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Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#121

Post by ashoeafoot »

psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

We now have assembler, now anyone can program.

No, wait it was called natural language coding, now anyone can code.

No, wait it was called run anything self fixing code. No wait, simplified domain specific language.

No, wait it was uml based coding.

No, wait excel makros.

No, wait its node based drag and drop .

No, wait its LLMs.

The mental retardation of no code is strong with the deciding caste, every reincarnation must be taxed.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#122

Post by eru »

AdieuToLogic wrote: post #78
bazoom42 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early on, programming was considered secretarial work.

> Early on, programming was considered secretarial work. Incorrect. Encoding a program was considered secretarial work, not the act of programming itself. Over time, "encoding" was shortened to "coding." This is why the industry term "coder" is a pejorative descriptor.

> This is why the industry term "coder" is a pejorative descriptor.

For some people some of the time. I don't think that's true in general.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#123

Post by eru »

DavidPiper wrote: post #66
munificent wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers. I disagree with the "only" part here. Imagine a distribution curve of photos with shitty photos on the left and masterpieces on the right and the height at the curve is how many photos there are to be seen at that quality. The digital camera transition massively increased the height of the curve at all points. And thanks to things like be…

Thank you for describing this so eloquently. Meaning no disrespect to photographers, I'm starting to think that a probable outcome of all the AI investment is a sharp uptick in shovelware. If we can get AIs to build "pretty good" things - or even just "pretty average" things - cheaply, then our app stores, news feeds, ad feeds, company directives, etc, will be continuously swamped with it.

> Meaning no disrespect to photographers, I'm starting to think that a probable outcome of all the AI investment is a sharp uptick in shovelware.

You can use AI to filter out the shovelware, so you never have to see it.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#124

Post by dmkolobov »

9rx wrote: post #28
ameliaquining wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really because of the English-esque syntax, rather than because it was a step forward in semantic expressivity? If SQL looked like, say, C#'s LINQ method syntax, would it really be harder to use?

> Is that really because of the English-esque syntax Well, what we had before SQL[1] was QUEL, which is effectively the same as Alpha[2], except in "English". Given the previous assertion about what came before SQL, clearly not. I expect SQL garnered favour because it is tablational instead of relational, which is the quality that makes it easier to understand for those not heavy in the math. [1] Originally known as…

Do you have any advice for understanding the difference between "relational" and "tablational"? I remember hearing something about how SQL is not really relational from my college professor, but we never really explored that statement.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#125

Post by eru »

DavidPiper wrote: post #93
test6554 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Experts warn that at current production levels, the supply of dick pics may actually outpace demand in a couple decades.

I was under the impression that supply already vastly outstrips demand.

Demand is very unevenly distributed. I think they are appreciated on Grindr.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#126

Post by soulofmischief »

ashoeafoot wrote: post #121
psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

We now have assembler, now anyone can program. No, wait it was called natural language coding, now anyone can code. No, wait it was called run anything self fixing code. No wait, simplified domain specific language. No, wait it was uml based coding. No, wait excel makros. No, wait its node based drag and drop . No, wait its LLMs. The mental retardation of no code is strong with the deciding caste, every reincarnation…

What's wrong with visual programming?

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#127

Post by fulafel »

dehrmann wrote: post #13

The farming quote is interesting, but one of the Jevons paradox requirements is a highly elastic demand curve, and food is inelastic . The open questions right now are how much of a demand is there for more software, and where do AI capabilities plateau.

Demand for eaten calories is not very elastic but plentiful food crops lead to piping crops through the wasteful, environmentally harmful & unethical thingthat is meat production.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#128

Post by chii »

ashoeafoot wrote: post #121
psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

We now have assembler, now anyone can program. No, wait it was called natural language coding, now anyone can code. No, wait it was called run anything self fixing code. No wait, simplified domain specific language. No, wait it was uml based coding. No, wait excel makros. No, wait its node based drag and drop . No, wait its LLMs. The mental retardation of no code is strong with the deciding caste, every reincarnation…

The big difference with LLM is that you don't have to have a conherant and logical thought, and the LLM will "fix" that for you by morphing it into the nearest coherent expression and show you the result.

Presumably, the LLM user will have sufficient brain capacity to verify that the result works as they have imagined (however incomplete the mental picture might be). They then have an opportunity to tweak, in real time (of sorts), to make the output closer to what they want. Repeat this as many times as needed/time available, and the output gets to be quite sufficient for purpose.

This is how traditional, bespoke software development would've worked with contractor developers. Except with LLM, the turnaround time is in minutes, rather than in days or weeks.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#129

Post by aitchnyu »

musicale wrote: post #104
psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

FORTRAN (FORmula TRANslator) was another "AI" project in "automatic programming": "Before 1954, almost all programming was done in machine language or assembly language. Programmers rightly regarded their work as a complex, creative art that required human inventiveness to produce an efficient program." -John Backus, "The History of Fortran I, II, and III", https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/800025.1198345 "The IBM Mathe…

Fortran promised to eliminate debugging. In 2015, I taught React is a functional programming way to create very fast, bug free apps and the project manager found ways to push us to the hair-on-fire status quo.

"FORTRAN should virtually eliminate coding and debugging" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3970011

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#130

Post by iamflimflam1 »

psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

I think what we forget is these high level languages did open up programming to people who would have been considered “nontechnical” back in the day.
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