Knowledge of Programming Fundamentals

The article “Future Developments: Tomorrow’s IT Stars Will Need More Than Mere Skills” published in eWeek (2004) likens the science of application development to basic reading and writing skills that all educated people have developed.  This is not to say that all people are today equipped with the knowledge of programming fundamentals.  Rather, the author of the article makes the point that since writing an enterprise application requires a mere set of rules and directions such as those that car drivers are acquainted with, it is possible that every educated person in the near future will be equipped with the knowledge of programming fundamentals.

By following a set of rules and directions, therefore, every person who needs to write an enterprise application or software program would be able to find his way.  In that case, what would be the job of trained programmers?  The author describes the programmers of tomorrow as masters in their science.  Like “master tour guides,” these individuals would be akin to the “Formula 1 racers who can push their enabling technology to new limits.”  So yes, there will be need in the days to come for trained computer scientists.  All the same, today’s programmer must seek to be a master in the science – one who knows more about the technology than laymen who merely follow the guidelines to programming.

Given that the layman, too, should be able to follow specific rules to write applications, it is wise to let the computer software be divided into operating systems and applications.  This makes it easier for anyone who is not a master in computer science to easily use both operating systems and applications, each with their own guidelines for operation.  If applications and operating systems were integrated, the layman would have to learn much more than he would be willing to learn about programming anyhow.

Lastly, Coffee (2004) asks if knowledge of programming fundamentals would be required in the same way in the future that reading and writing are taken for granted today as basic skills.  Based on the summary of the article above, the answer to the question is: Yes, every working professional who wishes to follow the set of rules and directions to write his own program in the future would be able to do so almost perfectly.  However, unlike reading and writing skills that are acquired by both working and unemployed people, the skill of writing programs by following a set of guidelines is not expected to be acquired by all people.