6 ms·

Well, this makes me feel old. It's no revolution, but a reversion. It was the norm, not that long ago, that anyone could do minor programming. The era of Lotus

by shakna 5y ago

Well, this makes me feel old. It's no revolution, but a reversion. It was the norm, not that long ago, that anyone could do minor programming. The era of Lotus Notes and the like. You would still hire a programmer for the big stuff, but office workers would build little scripts, or look under the covers when something goes wrong.

abakker 5y ago
A lot of us office workers still do. I prefer to keep scripts little and just use OTT software as much as possible. Often, scripting is not possible to avoid.
analog31 5y ago
Programming is too important to be left to programmers. -- apologies to Clemenceau I think it's possible to make productive use of programming without claiming to be developing software by which I mean, programs that are expected to be placed into long term or widespread use. That's what we did with programming in BASIC, 40 years ago. As a scientist, I use programming for things like modeling, data analysis, lab automation, algorithm prototyping, and so forth. You folks all know why. I'm not going to sacrifice that power just because I don't develop full blown software. Scientists programmed before there was a software industry. If something that I create threatens to end up in a product, it gets handed to the software department. We can hire an army of programmers. Granted, there is a widely known problem with this approach. A program can evolve to the point where it's really "too big" for a non-developer to manage, but "too small" to justify the cost of spinning up a software development project in a typical organization. I don't have a good solution for that problem.
- zozbot234 5y ago
  There was plenty of actual, production software written in some variety of BASIC. The language(s) definitely had its weakness, but it was not uniformly terrible. Especially once the "structured" varieties were introduced.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    For many BASIC was the gateway drug to programming in the same way that JavaScript is today, it was included with almost every system.
jacquesm 5y ago
And Hypercard / Filemaker. The things I've seen non IT people build with those still blow me away.

by shakna 5y ago

abakker 5y ago

A lot of us office workers still do. I prefer to keep scripts little and just use OTT software as much as possible. Often, scripting is not possible to avoid.

analog31 5y ago

Programming is too important to be left to programmers. -- apologies to Clemenceau I think it's possible to make productive use of programming without claiming to be developing software by which I mean, programs that are expected to be placed into long term or widespread use. That's what we did with programming in BASIC, 40 years ago. As a scientist, I use programming for things like modeling, data analysis, lab automation, algorithm prototyping, and so forth. You folks all know why. I'm not going to sacrifice that power just because I don't develop full blown software. Scientists programmed before there was a software industry. If something that I create threatens to end up in a product, it gets handed to the software department. We can hire an army of programmers. Granted, there is a widely known problem with this approach. A program can evolve to the point where it's really "too big" for a non-developer to manage, but "too small" to justify the cost of spinning up a software development project in a typical organization. I don't have a good solution for that problem.

zozbot234 5y ago
There was plenty of actual, production software written in some variety of BASIC. The language(s) definitely had its weakness, but it was not uniformly terrible. Especially once the "structured" varieties were introduced.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  For many BASIC was the gateway drug to programming in the same way that JavaScript is today, it was included with almost every system.

jacquesm 5y ago

And Hypercard / Filemaker. The things I've seen non IT people build with those still blow me away.