12 ultimate technical conjectures about the world of programming

It is still difficult to predict the future of the programming world, but one thing is certain: technology is developing at an accelerated pace. Here are 12 unique perspectives and conjectures. Let's see which conjectures will become reality in the near future.

1. GPU takes over from CPU

Gamers love to brag about how fast and high-end their graphics cards are, and how many FPS they can achieve with full special effects turned on. In fact, the pace of GPU advancement is not limited to this. Physicists use GPUs to perform high-speed microscopic analysis, astronauts use GPUs to simulate celestial motion, and biologists use GPUs to study the laws of species populations. Future compilers should be able to run directly on GPUs, getting rid of dependence on CPUs, making GPUs more widely used.

2. Databases enable more complex data analysis

In the future, databases will be able to do more than just data warehouses, such as business intelligence analysis, data model extraction, big data applications, etc. However, to perform such high-intensity and complex calculations, the cost of data transportation is the key to success or failure. If there is a data engine that can directly process large amounts of disorganized data without having to manually put the data into separate large data packages and then process them, this will bring a revolutionary improvement to the speed of data analysis.

3. JavaScript is everywhere

JS will not only be used as a development language. Currently, JS is not only active in browsers, but also begins to emerge on the server side, such as NodeJS. Browser-based HTML5 applications give developers enough confidence in their running performance.

On the one hand, JS is as exquisite as machine code, and on the other hand, it provides good lightweight support for the Web. The browser is likely to swallow up the entire platform; the emergence of Chrome OS and Chrome book makes people wonder: what else can't JS and browsers do?

4. Android for All

Camera manufacturers such as Nikon, under pressure from increasingly advanced hardware and technology on mobile devices, have begun running Android systems on their own cameras, directly executing social software such as Instagram. In addition, Android smart TVs, refrigerators, headphones, etc. have also emerged one after another.

Although the UI is still criticized for being inconvenient and too complicated,
But once the Android ecosystem is established and becomes the "core" of the digital home, designers will certainly start to solve this problem. In addition, traditional PC manufacturers have also smelled the taste of being out of the game and started to make Android apps run directly on PCs. Traditional Windows applications may face a more difficult development dilemma.

5. Broad Internet - Internet of Things

A positive side effect of the continued popularity of platforms such as Android and Linux is that it continues to push more things to become Internet-connected things. For example, important daily things - cars. Navigation and shopping have become the stepping stones to the Internet; the development of functions such as hotspot reminders and advertising marketing has provided developers with more opportunities to make money.

The key step is to distinguish the key points of concern in each field. For example, to develop corresponding smart toys for different age groups, smart temperature control equipment needs to connect to the observatory and read relevant information. APIs will play an important supporting role in this.

6. New open source environment

The success of platforms/tools such as Android, Ubuntu, and MySQL has injected a steady stream of vitality and momentum into the open source environment. However, an urgent problem to be solved is: after open source, how to find enough funds to support sustainable development? At present, there do not seem to be many successful examples to prove that "open source = making money".

Most open source resources released by enterprises should be described as demos, but with the title of open source. Developers do not have much room for bargaining over their core secrets. Excellent open source projects will give developers more room to play and form a new open source environment.

7. More WordPress-like online content management systems

The insurance trading website that the US government had previously built with great effort was considered a big mistake - self-development. Now almost no one is going to such great lengths to develop their own content system. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. allow us to quickly build our own Web Apps, and the rich plug-in functions are even more powerful. If there are more intuitive data browsing systems supporting PHPMyAdmin and debugging tools in the future, similar management systems will reach another milestone in development.

8. Plugin-based development replaces full programming

One of the most fundamental reasons why PhotoShop can become the most widely used image editing tool is that it provides a large number of plug-in support. Similar plug-in development means that programmers will do more code snippets instead of traditional full programming. Lightweight plug-in programming can utilize everything in the entire micro development environment, which is more flexible and convenient.

9. The life of the command line

Perhaps this is contrary to what most people think, the command line will not end its journey soon. Although more and more tools provide drag-and-drop development, there are still a large number of terminal-style text editor-style tools, and some tools even only support command line mode.

The vitality of the command line lies in its lightness and wide use. We can easily extend a task script or attach it to another function script, which is the Achilles heel of current drag-and-drop programming.

10. The road to simplification is long

Over the past 50 years, programmers have done their best to train a new generation of developers, which can be said to be successful - but it is only the most basic part. Programming evangelists pursue the grand goal of making everyone a programmer, and will strive for more resource support. But the real understanding of programming is to understand the operation process of 0 and 1 after each keystroke, to understand every detail of the methodology and development process of creating software. Teaching others to know if-then-else looks beautiful, but it does not mean that it will bring more programmers.

11. Outsourcing and insourcing are at loggerheads

It is generally believed that all programming jobs will be assigned to the lowest-paid countries in the world. In addition, according to economics, more and more labor-intensive jobs will be replaced by automated tools or machines, and real job opportunities will be left to people who understand business.

Once the above assumptions come true, outsourcing service teams will be attacked from both sides. On the one hand, they will have to fight against new automation tools, and their bargaining space will be further compressed; on the other hand, the internal team of the enterprise will strengthen its endogenous training, so that it can take the initiative in outsourcing contract negotiations.

12. Managers are less knowledgeable about programming

Sometimes discussing requirements with people who don't understand programming is the most troublesome thing, and the outcome is often frustrating, with neither party getting what they want.

Managers’ shallow understanding of basic technology is often one of the most fundamental reasons for age discrimination in recruitment. On the one hand, they think that the younger generation is more proficient in cutting-edge technology and they don’t need to spend time learning about it; on the other hand, they think that the younger generation is more hardworking.

Therefore, the entire working environment appears to be full of vitality, but in reality it is a mediocre and mechanical studio that only adheres to the principle of "just enough is enough".