4 ms·
> Programming, as a profession, has simply become more commoditized. It used to be kind of like being a brain surgeon, and it's becoming more like being a plumb
by georgeoliver 4y ago
> Programming, as a profession, has simply become more commoditized. It used to be kind of like being a brain surgeon, and it's becoming more like being a plumber.
Did it start that way though? I feel like from the 50s-70s, outside of a narrow slice of academia, companies were mass hiring (and training!) people to program.
- Animats 4y agoYes. Companies used to send people to "IBM School", to learn COBOL or Job Control Language. If you have to pay to train people, the technology tends to be kept simple and understandable.
- AnimalMuppet 4y agoIf I parsed that correctly, you're using JCL as an example of a technology that was kept simple and understandable. That, um, is not the way I think about JCL...
- Animats 4y agoGood point. I used UNIVAC mainframes, not IBM. They had a different control language which wasn't too bad.