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  • Author Author: clem57
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clem57

                    In honor of...

 

   With the coming of Nanorama I think it is fitting to look back at another Arduino project 14 in Open Arduino . Back then we had the opportunity to work with the MKR1010. It amazes me how far hardware has progressed. Unfortunately as often is the case, the software lags behind. The ideas are there, but realizing them is very difficult because not enough time and tools available to somehow automate the process. In my many years in this biz of software, I have head about how programmers will one day be replaced by machines. The actual truth is  reality has blurred vision. We can use robotics to do physical things. We can use AI/ML to help improve day o day functions like Alexa . But the task of programming still has not be eliminated.  So pleas comment on your ideas of automating the actual programming task.

Thanks!

Clem

 

  • in reply to cstanton

    Was not that the theme of a movie?

     

  • Wouldn't automation of the actual programming be a sign of the rise of genuine artificial intelligence? Short of programming being a direct translation of natural language instruction?

     

    Current artificial intelligence isn't much more than logic states, however you rarely hear about software or hardware being created with the ability to reprogramme itself.

  • Google has also automated big parts of the exercise.

    It replaced “develop a library” with “apt-get install library” or “pip get library” and copy/paste.

    I think Google is the biggest software reuse initiative. The number #1 code writing eliminator.

  • Automation of the mundane/rote elements of software has been for a long time, as Doug references above.  4GLs have been around as long as I remember.

     

    I have access to an interesting book from 1959: Programming Programme for the BESM Computer by A.P. ERSHOV.  This presents the results of one of the first experiments to develop a programming programme for electronic computers. The work was carried out initially in the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Calculation Techniques in the USSR Academy of Sciences and subsequently and then Computation Centre of the Academy. BESM (Bolshaya Elektronno-Schetnaya Mashina) is a universal digital 3-address machine, carrying out 8-10 thousand operations on the average.

     

    Alan Turing’s paper on computers described an approach whereby the machine itself would ‘program’ itself as it computated through a paper tape of data and instructions, writing new data and instruction onto the tape.

     

    Even back in the day, then, they were looking at this!  I think programmers’ jobs are safe still.

  • in reply to dougw

    Good point . One down side to using libraries are incorrect calls to the API's. As some changes are made to the code in the APIs, these faults surface with unanticipated results.

    Clem