2 ms·

> Really, the programming language landscape has changed little since 1987. This is probably true as written, the languages that we know today are similar to w

> Really, the programming language landscape has changed little since 1987. This is probably true as written, the languages that we know today are similar to what existed back then in the way you tell the computer what to do. Things like functional already existed. Not sure about garbage collection, when did that become a thing? But what's really changed is: - You can download a huge amount of libraries from someone else really easily. - You can ask questions and someone else has already answered, or you will find a language expert and they'll help you. This is almost entirely StackOverflow, I suppose also a number of previous sites that have gotten outcompeted. - Tools for coding are miles better. Intellisense, extensible IDEs, Version control, CI/CD. I remember as a kid in the 90s trying to learn how to code, and as soon as there was a problem, there was no help. I knew zero people who definitely knew the answer and maybe one or two who might know the answer. So after a few blockages, I just gave up. Nowadays I can jump into a new language just with the internet available. I'm pretty sure I could write a simple program in just about any widely known language that's new to me, just with a bit of time. I've done it a few times now, and each time I've seen problems like what I hit as a kid, and overcome them with a bit of searching.

edflsafoiewq 5y ago
Garbage collection is from around 1960, invented for the first Lisp. 1987 is actually around the high-water mark of the entire Lisp world; its the year the Lisp machine market crashed as the AI winter set in.
wakeupcall 5y ago
> - Tools for coding are miles better. Intellisense, extensible IDEs, Version control, CI/CD. True, but since projects/libraries were smaller themselves, I think the overall the effort here remained roughly the same. I remember I was directly "diving in" in the header files of the major libraries I was using at the time without too much effort. Doing the same in something like Qt5 today would make my head spin. I agree about the rest. My local library at the time was completely useless, so I went by local bookshops and bought whatever titles they had on the shelves, which (looking back) was usually rather poorly written garbage. The true change for me was the discovery of early amazon, where I could buy the most obscure untranslated technical titles I wanted and get them shipped overseas at reasonable cost. Local bookshops generally didn't give a crap about my requests.
- bdcravens 5y ago
  In 1999, I took home the book that came with the ColdFusion install disks, and learned pretty much the entire language in a week. Now there are Ruby Gem or Node modules with as much or more complexity.

edflsafoiewq 5y ago

Garbage collection is from around 1960, invented for the first Lisp. 1987 is actually around the high-water mark of the entire Lisp world; its the year the Lisp machine market crashed as the AI winter set in.

wakeupcall 5y ago

> - Tools for coding are miles better. Intellisense, extensible IDEs, Version control, CI/CD. True, but since projects/libraries were smaller themselves, I think the overall the effort here remained roughly the same. I remember I was directly "diving in" in the header files of the major libraries I was using at the time without too much effort. Doing the same in something like Qt5 today would make my head spin. I agree about the rest. My local library at the time was completely useless, so I went by local bookshops and bought whatever titles they had on the shelves, which (looking back) was usually rather poorly written garbage. The true change for me was the discovery of early amazon, where I could buy the most obscure untranslated technical titles I wanted and get them shipped overseas at reasonable cost. Local bookshops generally didn't give a crap about my requests.

bdcravens 5y ago
In 1999, I took home the book that came with the ColdFusion install disks, and learned pretty much the entire language in a week. Now there are Ruby Gem or Node modules with as much or more complexity.