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A command line used to be the primary UI, and thank God we don't have to do that anymore. The iOS UI makes computing way more accessible to everyone. Programm
by stvswn 11y ago
A command line used to be the primary UI, and thank God we don't have to do that anymore. The iOS UI makes computing way more accessible to everyone.
Programming is certainly going to be an increasingly valuable skill. But it is not the same as reading and writing -- those skills are about communicating with other humans. Programming is about giving instructions with machines. Only one is critical in order to contribute to society.
Programming is a valuable skill, but it does not make one an ubermensch, and many people will continue to live their lives without being one of the few who can design software. They will definitely operate software, and it's the job of the engineer to let them do that without any special skills.
We always talk about more programming education -- which is fantastic, because more kids need an opportunity to get started in a valuable skill with which they can do great things for society. But it isn't reading. Not everyone wants to do it, and it's not as if 25 years from now a law degree is going to require coding. It isn't. Maybe, just maybe, it will require operating a new intelligent software system that can do legal analysis. But if operating that software requires programming, we've screwed up.
- kazinator 11y agoWhat the iOS GUI makes accessible to everyone is something other than computing.
- stvswn 11y agoOK, then, what is instant access to all of wikipedia, and to Google's entire search index, inside your pocket at all times? It is what computers have wrought. If you don't think "computing" means "using a computer," then fine. But at a higher level, my point is this: if I were master of the universe, I'd pick millions of people with iPhones over millions of people writing their own programs. For those who love programming, coding is an ends to itself. But in the real world it's not -- people don't care about the code, they just want to see pictures of their grandkids. The pictures of their grandkids are really making their life better in a way that shouldn't be dismissed as frivolous and "not real computing." If we don't make software for people to use in the real world, why do it at all?
- lelandbatey 11y agoiPhones and the internet seem to chiefly facilitate communication, with a subsection of functionality dedicated to computing.
- kazinator 11y agoInstant access to vast resources and being able to instantly take pictures and send them to people are ... other than computing (not less than, or not real, or frivolous). Google's search index, by the way, is accessed via a de facto command line (having nothing to do with iOS). That command line has some very rudimentary computing built in: like if you type 2 + 2 and hit Enter, a calculator UI comes up.
- draw_down 11y agoOh? Do tell.