> Nowadays? Grab a Flash development tutorial and you can do in a week what I spent most of high school learning and doing.
Here's my attempt to hone in on what the problem is - programming is less interesting now, because it's easier. It appeals to a larger audience now.
I think, in an analogous way, the same thing has happened to video games. They aren't nearly as difficult as they were in the past. Most allow you to save as much as you want. The puzzles, if any, are made simple enough that everyone can solve them. As a result, it appeals to larger audiences, and that sense of enjoyment is lost to the old schoolers who would like a challenge.
With games, however, it's possible that companies will make games that sell to old schoolers. With programming, we can't do that - any attempt to add challenge to it would get in the way of what programming is actually for - and that's getting things done.
The culmination of what is happening, some day in the future, is that programming will no longer be any challenge at all, to anyone. You will be able to have a conversation with a computer in plain English (or your language of preference) about what you would like it to build for you, and it will get built.
Here's my attempt to hone in on what the problem is - programming is less interesting now, because it's easier. It appeals to a larger audience now.
I think, in an analogous way, the same thing has happened to video games. They aren't nearly as difficult as they were in the past. Most allow you to save as much as you want. The puzzles, if any, are made simple enough that everyone can solve them. As a result, it appeals to larger audiences, and that sense of enjoyment is lost to the old schoolers who would like a challenge.
With games, however, it's possible that companies will make games that sell to old schoolers. With programming, we can't do that - any attempt to add challenge to it would get in the way of what programming is actually for - and that's getting things done.
The culmination of what is happening, some day in the future, is that programming will no longer be any challenge at all, to anyone. You will be able to have a conversation with a computer in plain English (or your language of preference) about what you would like it to build for you, and it will get built.