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https://opensea.io/collection/dev-21
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Darryl Yeo đ ïž
@darrylyeo
I wonder if ten years from now, the ability to type code character-by-character on a physical keyboard without the help of an LLM could be considered a survival skill. Like treading water, starting a fire or knowing the Heimlich maneuver. https://x.com/rez0__/status/1908129171097719276
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Monteluna
@monteluna
I feel like this is true for pure Node JavaScript. I don't think a single dev even remembers what the prototype chain or the event loop even is anymore. All they know how to do is regurgitate Typescript without bothering to use the type system and lie.
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Darryl Yeo đ ïž
@darrylyeo
Iâm not even talking about a particular programming language. Just knowing how to type code on a keyboard coherently. Computing is not going to look or feel anything like the way we know it today a decade from now.
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Monteluna
@monteluna
Well I guess as someone who coded a decade ago it doesn't look or feel anything like the way we do it today. The language levels are so high and many footguns have been abstracted away by library on top of library. One of the clearest examples at least in javascript land is how we now have a modern type system, but no one really uses it in the way a Haskell developer would do to *prove* their systems work. They just run the type checker to make sure their program runs, then are shocked when the program fails at run time. We have a strongly typed system now, but no one even bothers to use it and I don't think anyone even studies how to use it. I don't think most developers understand the underlying computer science of the systems they use anymore. Back 10 years ago, you didn't have decent internet documentation so you were forced to learn these things.
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Monteluna
@monteluna
By the way, Sussman (who wrote SICP at MIT for years) pointed this out a decade ago, that it's more of a function of the business of programming. The systems are so networked and complicated now it's not worth even learning this stuff, and in many cases because of IP in large companies, you couldn't if you tried. You basically have to work by "test in prod" and if it works at a point, you just ship it. http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/5335
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Darryl Yeo đ ïž
@darrylyeo
Interesting angle that I hadnât thought about! It is true that a lot of higher-level language innovation is business-motivated, but it I donât think their proliferation is all bad or necessarily obscures what actually happens. It just means you need less specialized devs maintaining the lower-level tools over time. In college, I grew restless because I didnât see the point of wrestling with pointers in C when we already have safer and more expressive languages like Rust. Or in frontend land, why intermediate virtual-DOM / dirty-checking runtimes like React and Angular need to exist when Svelte can compile directly to DOM operations. And on and on. I do think TypeScriptâs abstractions on top of JavaScript have overall been a net good. As long as you steer clear from escape hatches like `as` and `any`, you are usually better off adopting it than not. Of course, knowing some set theory gives you an advantage when debugging, but the point is you shouldnât have to be Anders Hejlsberg to use it well.
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