Posted on 03/16/2025 6:24:41 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
To me programming is low level languages. That’s where the work gets done. Not a bunch of acronyms, Interfaces, or API’s whatever you want to call it.
I’ve tried a lot of high level “Tools” in the last 35 years and they always came up short. You needed to add some real code in here and there. On a simple level like adding a little VBA to an Excel Spreadsheet.
I started to learn programming on my own back in the late 1970’s when the first microcomputers (MITS Altair, Sol-20) began to appear. I fell in love with it and couldn’t teach myself fast enough. I have a Ph.D. in economics and was teaching at a university at the time. I built 10 kits for the College of Business and used the “computer lab” to teach statistics and modeling (using Lotus 123). I learned enough to write a C compiler that my software company marketed plus wrote a total of 20 programming texts along the way. I retired from the CS department at a Big 10 university. Now I’m 80 years old and teaching myself about AI. There’s no secret to keeping a programming job. All you have to do is keep renewing your skill set.
In the early 1990s we began using tools that “wrote” programs. Those programs were like the same program/model modified to do some similar but different task. Out programmers spent as much time perfecting the results as if writing the prgram from scratch and the tools were scrapped.
BTW, the above pictures? They were called "bugs" because literally bugs would fly into the computers and short them out. (IIRC)
What happens when big money decides to steer it all in their direction and you have no recourse.
Like they did during COVID, remember?
“All you have to do is keep renewing your skill set.”
All you have to do is keep upgrading your skill set.
VBA is not a low level language.
AI can’t program, PRODUCE or create new ideas.
It can deduce and regurgitate existing concepts and ideas but only what it’s seen.
If you need new concepts, new solutions (and you need that if you’re coding NEW programs) then you need real engineers.
AI might compete with low level “grunt” programming - but do that and you’ll knock out low level people who will never become advanced people.
Addy Osmani, the head of user experience for Google Chrome, calls this 'the 70% problem':AI can recognize patterns, but does not (yet?) understand flow mechanics."While engineers report being dramatically more productive with AI, the actual software we use daily doesn’t seem like it’s getting noticeably better."
wake me up when AI can perform a relatively simple task like convert each year’s new Federal + 50 States’ tax laws and rules into the the new TurboTax Deluxe + State PC/Mac program and new H&R Block Deluxe + state PC/Mac program for the year ...
Also a lot of business applications have to play well with legacy systems, that have a bunch of quirks, that cannot simply be deduced by using AI.
“AI can’t program, PRODUCE or create new ideas.”
‘Write a program for finding prime nujbers’
GEMINI
def is_prime(n):
“””Returns True if n is a prime number, False otherwise.”””
if n <= 1:
return False
for i in range(2, int(n**0.5) + 1):
if n % i == 0:
return False
return True
def find_primes(limit):
“””Returns a list of prime numbers up to the given limit.”””
prime_numbers = []
for i in range(2, limit + 1):
if is_prime(i):
prime_numbers.append(i)
return prime_numbers
# Example usage: Find prime numbers up to 100
primes_up_to_100 = find_primes(100)
print(”Prime numbers up to 100:”, primes_up_to_100)
# Example usage: Find prime numbers up to 50
primes_up_to_50 = find_primes(50)
print(”Prime numbers up to 50:”, primes_up_to_50)
Explanation:
* is_prime(n) function:
* Takes an integer n as input.
* Returns False if n is less than or equal to 1 (because 1 and numbers less than 1 are not prime).
* Iterates from 2 up to the square root of n. If n is divisible by any number in this range, it’s not prime, and the function returns False.
* If the loop completes without finding a divisor, n is prime, and the function returns True.
* find_primes(limit) function:
* Takes an integer limit as input.
* Creates an empty list prime_numbers.
* Iterates from 2 up to limit.
* For each number, it calls the is_prime() function to check if it’s prime.
* If is_prime() returns True, the number is appended to the prime_numbers list.
* returns the list of prime numbers.
* Example Usage:
* The code demonstrates how to use the find_primes() function to find prime numbers up to 100 and 50.
* The results are printed to the console.
“Also a lot of business applications have to play well with legacy systems, that have a bunch of quirks, that cannot simply be deduced by using AI.”
It can when trained to include those “quirks”.
I hope so. Three generations in our family have worked in this field, beginning with punch cards. Through all the changes, there was always a need for people. I hope it continues that way.
“Also a lot of business applications have to play well with legacy systems, that have a bunch of quirks, that cannot simply be deduced by using AI.”
Microsoft has a website where you can practice training your own AI models. Try it and learn.
Yep, better word...
mark for later
“wake me up when AI can perform a relatively simple task like convert each year’s new Federal + 50 States’ tax laws and rules into the the new TurboTax Deluxe + State PC/Mac program and new H&R Block Deluxe + state PC/Mac program for the year ...”
I guess you never heard of Document AI.
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