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The future of programming (1982)
Hraness wrote this summary from a saved copy of the source. Quotations are taken word for word from the source.
gist
Writing in Communications of the ACM in 1982, Anthony Wasserman and Steven Gutz forecast how programming would change over the short, medium and long term. They predict better tools and integrated environments first, then reusable component libraries and program generators, and eventually nonprocedural specification, turning application programmers into analysts.
ideas
- Short term. Programmer productivity rises through improved tools and integrated development environments.
- Medium term. Programmers draw on libraries of software components and packages that generate programs automatically for common kinds of systems.
- Long term. Programmers describe desired functions nonprocedurally, perhaps through rules or formal specification languages.
- A changing job. Application programming becomes increasingly analysis-oriented, opening application areas that could not previously be addressed effectively.
quotes
“The nature of programming is changing.”
“the job of the application programmer will become increasingly analysis-oriented”