5 ms·

In the early 2000s, I was at a friend's place with John "maddog" Hall, who was talking to a group of us about the future of software and the promises of quantum

by robteix 10y ago

In the early 2000s, I was at a friend's place with John "maddog" Hall, who was talking to a group of us about the future of software and the promises of quantum computing. He said something that I always found interesting. He was talking about how in a decade or so we would probably be using software and tools that would be unrecognizable to us at that moment, but after a pause he added: "but we'll still be writing code with vi." :)

innocentoldguy 10y ago
So, he was right about at least one thing then. :)
- bubblesocks 10y ago
  Not sure why you're getting down-voted. Development tools look pretty much the same as they did in 2000, languages all feel quite similar, and quantum computing still isn't ubiquitous. We are, indeed, still using Vim though, and quite happily, I might add.
  - humanrebar 10y ago
    CI and deployment tools have matured a lot. I'd call them development tools.
vkou 10y ago
Having used Windows, Linux, Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Perforce in both the early 2000s, and today, I'd daresay that they are quite recognizable. Much more usable (Except for Eclipse), but still quite recognizable.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  I'd agree with that. I actually can't think of a tool I use day to day that I wouldn't recognise from 20 years ago even the really good stuff would be obvious in it's intent (intellij etc). I'm not really sure where I'd be able to improve significantly on day to day tool usage, maybe a shell that doesn't use bash as the language would be nice (I know there are other shells but bash/dash are the defaults on pretty much everything I touch I can get to a command line on).
  - ThrustVectoring 10y ago
    Slack app on your smartphone?
    - wingerlang 10y ago
      That's just IRC on a small computer though.
      - noir_lord 10y ago
        Sometimes the 'just' is where the magic is, we all know that slack is just a pretty irc that end users can grok. That 'just' is worth a fee billion dollars though. Makes you wonder if there are other tools in our world that could be a 'just' away from a billion dollars.
        wingerlang 10y ago
        Sure but I think that it is still recognisable, which was the question. 25 year ago isn't //that// long ago? People using IRC at that point (I guess techies) surely would recognise it fairly easy. Similarly you could look at a brand new Tesla and recognise it from a 1st car model or even a wagon.
        pvg 10y ago
        People using IRC at that point (I guess techies) College students, mostly.
        noir_lord 10y ago
        I think I first used it ~1995 so that would be 22 years. Hung around for about 5-6 years and it's been around in the background ever since, just got back into using it recently as one of the frameworks I use has a decent IRC channel and an even more decent offtopic, nice bunch of folks and with the ability to throw it in the background it gives a water cooler feeling when I'm working on my own and need to bounce an idea of people.

by robteix 10y ago

innocentoldguy 10y ago

So, he was right about at least one thing then. :)

bubblesocks 10y ago
Not sure why you're getting down-voted. Development tools look pretty much the same as they did in 2000, languages all feel quite similar, and quantum computing still isn't ubiquitous. We are, indeed, still using Vim though, and quite happily, I might add.
- humanrebar 10y ago
  CI and deployment tools have matured a lot. I'd call them development tools.

vkou 10y ago

Having used Windows, Linux, Visual Studio, Eclipse, and Perforce in both the early 2000s, and today, I'd daresay that they are quite recognizable. Much more usable (Except for Eclipse), but still quite recognizable.

noir_lord 10y ago
I'd agree with that. I actually can't think of a tool I use day to day that I wouldn't recognise from 20 years ago even the really good stuff would be obvious in it's intent (intellij etc). I'm not really sure where I'd be able to improve significantly on day to day tool usage, maybe a shell that doesn't use bash as the language would be nice (I know there are other shells but bash/dash are the defaults on pretty much everything I touch I can get to a command line on).
- ThrustVectoring 10y ago
  Slack app on your smartphone?
  - wingerlang 10y ago
    That's just IRC on a small computer though.
    - noir_lord 10y ago
      Sometimes the 'just' is where the magic is, we all know that slack is just a pretty irc that end users can grok. That 'just' is worth a fee billion dollars though. Makes you wonder if there are other tools in our world that could be a 'just' away from a billion dollars.
      - wingerlang 10y ago
        Sure but I think that it is still recognisable, which was the question. 25 year ago isn't //that// long ago? People using IRC at that point (I guess techies) surely would recognise it fairly easy. Similarly you could look at a brand new Tesla and recognise it from a 1st car model or even a wagon.
        pvg 10y ago
        People using IRC at that point (I guess techies) College students, mostly.
        noir_lord 10y ago
        I think I first used it ~1995 so that would be 22 years. Hung around for about 5-6 years and it's been around in the background ever since, just got back into using it recently as one of the frameworks I use has a decent IRC channel and an even more decent offtopic, nice bunch of folks and with the ability to throw it in the background it gives a water cooler feeling when I'm working on my own and need to bounce an idea of people.