Analyst Mocks the Idea That It's 'The End of Programming' Again

January's Communications of the ACM includes an essay predicting "the end of programming," in an AI-powered future where "programming will be obsolete."

A new essay titled "It's the end of programming as we know it - again" was written by IT analyst and ZDNet contributor Joe McKendrick. The software world has been roiled by various movements over the past few decades, promising either to hand a lot of programming grunt work to end users, or automate more of the process. CASE tools, 4GL, object-oriented programming, service oriented architecture, microservices, cloud services, Platform as a Service, serverless computing, low-code, and no-code all take the burden out of software development. It is possible that the job security of developers could be threatened. We are here yet. Demand for skills is increasing as software developers are busy. When the cloud first became popular, everyone said that IT Pros would soon have no job. We are still here and busy. The question is how the job of the developer will evolve. It is possible that artificial intelligence will make low-level coding obsolete. The emerging generation of automated or low-code development solutions gives IT professionals and developers the power to work on more challenging applications, according to Catrinescu. IT departments can build apps and automations that will add value to the enterprise.

Even the man predicting "the end of programming" in an AI-powered future also envisions new technology that "potentially opens up computing to almost anyone" (in ACM's video interview). But in ZDNet's article Jared Ficklin, chief creative technologist and co-founder of argodesign, even predicts the possibility of real-time computing. "You could imagine asking Alexa to make you an app to help organize your kitchen. AI would recognize the features, pick the correct patterns and in real time, over the air deliver an application to your mobile phone or maybe into your wearable mobile computer."