From Punch Cards to Prompts: The Past and Future of Programming

 As a junior developer with a background in business systems analysis, I’ve always been fascinated by how far technology has come and where it might be going. That’s why I chose to explore two connected topics for this post: the history and future of computers and the evolution of programming languages. These areas not only reflect the roots of my career in IT, but also align with where I want to grow, especially now, as AI begins to reshape the way we interact with code.

I’m drawn to the history of computers because it helps me understand the foundation on which today’s technologies are built. Learning about early innovations like the ENIAC or the rise of personal computing gives me greater appreciation for the tools we often take for granted. From mechanical devices to cloud-powered supercomputers, the journey of computing mirrors human creativity and problem-solving. Studying this history also puts modern development into perspective, especially when I hit a wall debugging code, it’s humbling to remember that developers before me were literally programming with punch cards (Ceruzzi, 2012).

The second topic I chose is the evolution of programming languages. As a developer working with modern frameworks like .NET and event-driven cloud architecture, I’m constantly seeing how languages evolve to meet changing needs. I’m curious about how we went from low-level languages like Assembly to high-level, human-readable languages like Python or C#. More importantly, I want to understand where we’re headed next. With the rise of artificial intelligence and tools like GitHub Copilot or ChatGPT, developers are no longer just writing code, we’re also prompting and guiding AI to generate it for us (Ahmad et al., 2022).

That leads me to my core question: What will programming languages look like in the future now that we have AI? Will we continue to write code in traditional syntax, or will natural language become the new standard? Will AI become an invisible collaborator, optimizing code behind the scenes, or will it eventually abstract programming to the point where we’re more architects than coders?

In their book, Sadowski and Zimmermann (2019) discuss how advancements in AI and automation are transforming software engineering practices, suggesting that developers may shift towards roles that emphasize problem framing and system design over traditional coding tasks.

A recent article from the Communications of the ACM suggests that as AI grows more capable, the role of human developers may shift toward problem framing, system design, and higher-level thinking rather than hands-on syntax (Sadowski, 2021). Understanding these shifts is important not only for staying relevant in the industry, but also for shaping how I want to grow as a developer. Whether we’re typing code or prompting AI, the most valuable skill will be the ability to adapt, and to never stop learning.

References

Ceruzzi, P. E. (2012). Computing: A concise history. The MIT Press.

Kotsiantis, S., Verykios, V., & Tzagarakis, M. (2024). AI-assisted programming tasks using code embeddings and transformers. Electronics, 13(4), 767. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13040767

Sadowski, C., & Zimmermann, T. (Eds.). (2019). Rethinking productivity in software engineering. Apress. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-4221-6