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Future of computer programming

as seen on xangans:

this might get rather long and boring so just a fair warning


since the fifth grade, i wanted to grow up to become a computer programmer. i was introduced to the BASIC language through this cd that my friend had and i was amazed that through hard work, patience and a bit of reading, you could make your own games on the computer. In sixth grade i learned html, and this really encouraged me to learn more and more about computer programming. ever since, i thought that this would be a job that i would enjoy and make lots of money (computer programmers in new york make about 60,000-70,000 yearly). Now i'm taking a visual basic class and i'm not really liking it. it's stupid how you get the same credit when you hard code a program and someone else just clicks on a few things and lets vb generate the code for them. the same thing goes for frontpage. i hate it when we're doing our visual basic notebooks in class and everyone in the class except for about 5 people (including myself) use frontpage to make webpages. it's worse when you get less credit when hard coding than someone who spent ten seconds pasting all their information into frontpage and just formatting all the text and background in there. thankfully, our teacher is discouraging the use of frontpage. but it still makes me uneasy about the future of computer programming. growth in employment of computer programmers is only about 10% in the country. not bad, but i think it's going to go down. why? cracks, warez, whatever you want to call it. software piracy hurts. why go buy hundreds of dollars worth of software when you can obtain it for free? it's not very encouraging is it. add the fact that generated code is getting more sophisticated, the future is pretty bleak.

so now, i'm faced with a critical decision. whether to pursue a career in computer science or something else. anyone have any advice, cause right now, the hope of me becoming a computer programmer is shrinking everyday.

i think i'm done ranting for now. please prove me wrong, since i'm sure many of you are more experienced than me, so please prove that there actually is hope for computer programmers.

many valid points, kryo

I do wonder how the Internet would look without the use of warez (I suppose that many people wouldn't be quite as active in web design and programming if they had to buy full versions of products like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe Photoshop, much less the 3D artwork applications). Then again, I am rather frustrated that prices are so high for certain products due to the compensation for lost sales by warez (once again, I wonder how much of the lost sales would occur in the first place).

It's true though, that some applications have made aspects of programming like hand-coding a bit more trivial, although there are still notepad purists and the like. Sure, hand-coding is more flexible and makes one more in touch with the code, but there are times when applications take an unnecessary burden off the programmer.